A visit to St. Mary Magdalen Church in Mortlake today produced a few surprises. It has been known for a while that the Lotteries Fund had given a grant to Habitats and Heritage to renovate the Burton Mausoleum in the graveyard. The project is known as Burton: Exploring Without Boundaries. The grant is for £250,000 to cover the works estimated at £150,000 with the balance going to educational purposes about the life of the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton and his wife Lady Isobel.

The first surprise was to find Dr Helen Brown, H & H Conservation and Interpretation Officer, in the graveyard for the start of onsite work. Helen has an academic specialism in the social and cultural history of English landscape gardens. She is pictured with Fr. Adrian McKenna, the Parish Priest.

The second surprise was to see the scaffolding in place with a contractor unscrewing the glass window to the mausoleum. The third surprise was to hear that tomorrow, Thursday, an assessment of the work necessary for the renovation will be undertaken. The project should be finished during the summer.

Inside the Church you can find the stained-glass Burton Memorial Window. This was given by his widow Lady Isobel nee Arundell. She was a staunch Catholic and several members of her family are buried in the cemetery. She had previously visited Portobello House, whose owner helped to found the church in 1852. Richard Burton was not a Catholic but in order to save his soul his wife ensured that the last rites were administered to him when he was on his death bed.

Note the inscription at the foot of the glass: In Suffragium Animarum Familiae Burton For the salvation of the souls of the Burton Family