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On 17th
December 1982 a memorial was dedicated to the poet and writer
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, universally known as Lewis Carroll.
The unveiling in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey was by his
great-nephew, Philip Dodgson Jaques, and the stone is situated
between those to Henry James and D.H. Lawrence. The Reverend
Ivor Davies of the Lewis Carroll Society gave the address. Two
granddaughters of Mr Jaques laid flowers on the stone. A
wreath was also placed by the President of the Lewis Carroll
Society of North America. One of the hymns, "My God, My
Father, while I stray" was also sung at his funeral.
The wording is in pale green and the circular design is meant
to represent a rabbit hole (alluding to an incident in his
most famous book). The stone was lettered by Ieuan Rees. The
outer circle inscription is taken from his poem prefacing
Sylvia and Bruno.
Charles was born on 27th January 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire,
a son of the Reverend Charles Dodgson and his wife Frances
(nee Lutwidge). He was educated at home and at Rugby School,
going on to read mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford. From
1855 to 1881 he was Mathematical Lecturer there. One afternoon
he took the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church
rowing on the river. One of these was Alice Pleasaunce Liddell
(who had been baptised and then later married in Westminster
Abbey) and there he told the story which was later published
in 1865 as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The sequel
Through the Looking Glass... followed and his long nonsense
poem The Hunting of the Snark was published in 1876.
His pseudonym Lewis Carroll was created by inverting 'Charles'
and 'Lutwidge', translating them into Latin and then back into
English. Charles was also an authority on Logic and an
enthusiastic photographer. He died unmarried at his house in
Guildford, Surrey on 14th January 1898 and was buried in
Guildford old cemetery.
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