Reasons for Designation
- Architectural: a large and elaborate mausoleum of high architectural quality in a sophisticated Flamboyant Gothic style;
- Artistic: good original sculpture and stained glass;
- Group value: located within the Grade I-registered Brompton Cemetery and has group value with other listed tombs and structures nearby.
History
Carre [Caroline] Rule McDonald died in January 1900; her husband, a chairman of the Anglo-American Oil Company, arranged for her body to be temporarily placed in the catacombs at Brompton Cemetery until the completion of the present mausoleum in 1902. James McDonald died in Washington DC in 1915; the removal of his remains to London was delayed by the Great War, and he was eventually interred at Brompton in 1920.
Brompton Cemetery was one of the 'magnificent seven' privately-run burial grounds established in the 1830s and 1840s to relieve pressure on London's overcrowded churchyards. It was laid out in 1839-1844 to designs by the architect Benjamin B Baud, who devised a classical landscape of axial drives and vistas with rond-points at the intersections marked by mausolea or ornamental planting, the latter devised by Isaac Finnemore with advice from JC Loudon. The main Ceremonial Way culminates in a dramatic architectural ensemble recalling Bernini's piazza in front of St Peter's in Rome, with flanking colonnades curving outwards to form a Great Circle, closed at its southern end in a domed Anglican chapel (the planned Catholic and Nonconformist chapels were omitted for financial reasons) The cemetery, never a commercial success, was compulsorily purchased by the General Board of Health in the early 1850s, and has remained in state ownership ever since.
Details
MATERIALS: White marble and black granite
DESCRIPTION: A large mausoleum adjoining the central walkway, resembling a small chapel in a Decorated Gothic style. Granite plinth, stepped base with angled off-sets; square corner pinnacles with leaf crockets and finials. Entrance front to north-east has a stepped gable crowned by an elaborate cross finial. Below is a depressed pointed arch supported on ringed granite shafts, with rich cusping to intrados and big leaf crockets to ogee extrados. Full-size statues of angels stand on pedestals within the arch, on either side of a smaller three-centred doorway with vine-scroll carving, containing a bronze door with floral openwork designs. Side elevations each comprise three blind cusped Gothic arches on granite shafts. Rear elevation has large blind ogee arch enclosing a small rose window of four quatrefoil lights. Interior walls have blind Gothic arches springing from granite corner shafts. Wall plaques commemorate Carre Rule McDonald (1854-1900), her husband James McDonald (1843-1915), and James Georger Briggs (1879-1909), her son by a previous marriage. Stained glass in rose window representing palms, lilies and crowns. Miniature altar below with corner shafts and carved reredos.
James McDonald left Scotland for America aged just 15. He went on to make his fortune in the oil industry, and was hugely influential in the oil and petroleum trade around the world. By the time he died in 1915, James was worth four million dollars.
The McDonald family emigrated to America in about 1858. James went to school in Ohio and then attended a Military Academy in Maryland. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, James became a clerk in the Union Army. He was part of the Quartermasters Department, supervising stores and supplies, for General Sherman’s invasion of Georgia – a bitter series of battles against the Confederates in 1864.
After the war, James went into business with his older brother Alexander. They set up an oil company in Cincinnati, which was so successful that it was bought for a great deal of money by the Standard Oil Company (later known as Esso). James came back to Britain in 1895 and set up the Anglo-American Oil Company, a subsidiary of Standard Oil, which helped enable the US to compete successfully in Europe.
James was incredibly hard-working, and so dedicated to his work that it affected his health. Heart problems forced him to retire, and he spent the remainder of his life travelling the world, looking for somewhere to settle that would improve his health. He died in Washington DC in 1915.
James was married twice, and had a son. When his wife, Carre (Caroline) died in 1900, she was laid to rest temporarily in Brompton Cemetery’s catacombs while the family mausoleum was being built. When James died in America in 1915, his body could not be brought back to Brompton until the First World War ended. The third family member buried there is James Briggs, Carre’s son by her first marriage.
The elegant mausoleum, designed like a small chapel, is guarded by two life-size angels. You can peek inside, through the floral metalwork of the door, to see a miniature altar. Above it is a rose window, with stained glass panels featuring palms, lilies and crowns.