It is with great sadness that we have heard of the death of the former President of the Church Monuments Society, Julian Litten. A founder member of the Society, he served with great distinction as its President from 2001 to 2006 and was subsequently a valued member of Council. His wealth of contacts and experience made him an invaluable guide and adviser.

Julian Litten did say (quite forcefully) that he did not want an obituary: so this is not an obituary but a short tribute to his remarkable achievements. His book The English Way of Death revolutionised our approach to the material culture of death and commemoration. In 1994 he produced the introductory essay to The Funeral Effigies of Westminster Abbey (2^nd, revised, ed. 2003), the introductory essay to Grave Concerns: Death and Burial in England 1700-1850 in 1998 and an essay in Arthur, The Forgotten Prince in 2009. He was a regular contributor to this web site and to the Society’s more formal publications, Church Monuments and the Newsletter. His lectures were one of the high spots of our free online lecture series, and are still available on our YouTube channel:

Beneath the Ledgerstone: Vaults and their contents (2021) is at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH6lz55-FQs

No Corpse, No Monument: Coffins for vault burial 1750-1900 (2022) is at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKBhoOwE_XY

Julian was particularly interested in ledgerstones, the most unassuming of the monuments inside our churches. He established the Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales and began a programme of surveying ledgerstones in churches, a programme which has now been taken over by the Church Recording Society. He was always generous in sharing his knowledge. We will miss him greatly, for his dry humour as well as his intellectual gifts.

The photographs below show Julian engaged in one of his favourite activities – peeping into church vaults.

Agnus dei, qui tollis peccata mundi
Dona ei pacem eternamque felicitatem et gloriam sempiternam.

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