The Eugen Sandow Gravesite

In July, 2001, this is what Roger Fillary saw visiting Sandow's grave:
There is a block of concrete that covers Sandow's grave. The top end of the stone, which we estimate as being placed there around 1990 or so, has two small metal studs, about 1" long protruding at each corner, suggesting that the slab was originally fixed somewhere else. At the bottom left hand side there are the remains of some decorative work, still in relief. The whole of the rest of the gravestone has some kind of markings on it, but it appears that whatever legible decoration or text it had was either smashed or hacked off, or still exsists on the under side, and what we see here is a second hand stone turned face down. The main piece of decoration that remains is just at the bottom left corner. If you look at the photos of the grave, you can see that it is covered quite thickly in places. This is dried grass that has been thrown on the stone from the strimmers used to cut the grass round the stone.

The burial register in the office shows Sandow's wife, Blanche Sandow, as the original owner of the grave. At the end in pencil is a message asking if anyone ever left flowers to contact the 'Health & Strength Gazette' (An English Bodybuilding Magazine - circa 1930s through 1950s). One wonders when that was written. I also enquired about restoring the gravestone. The official line is that, even today, it is a private grave and as such still owned by the family or descendants. The council will not normally allow headstones or other additions unless authorised by family, however, hey do not seem to have any record of instructions about the grave remaining unmarked.

My special thanks to Roger, for the information on the report above. Be sure to visit him at "Sandow Plus Website", the only other substantial site dedicated to Eugen Sandow. It is a "must see" as it contains the text of most of Sandow's books and articles. Roger is also a great contributor to the Sandow Museum website. Thanks Roger!

Putney Vale is located just off the A3 at Roehampton Vale and surrounded by Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park. Both the Cemetery and Crematorium stands on a picturesque site of of nearly 50 acres. The cemetery opened in 1891. Other notables buried at Putney Vale include the following... Donald Pleasance(Actor), Kenneth More (Actor), Howard Carter (Discovered King Tut's Tomb in Egypt), David Lean (Director of "Dr. Zhivago", "Passage to India" and "Lawrence of Arabia"), Bruce Ismay (Owner of the ill-fated "Titanic") and many others.