Today was my third trip to Warblington in search of the grave of Rosemary Tonks. Each time I set out with new optimism but each time I return without finding it. She is proving to be as elusive in death as she was in life.In his introduction to Bedouin of the London Evening, Neil Astley writes,
She died on 15 April 2014 and was buried two weeks later in her mother's grave at the Church of St. Thomas a Becket, Warblington, Hampshire, without a funeral or any ceremony, in line with her wishes: the body was only a vessel for her spirit. She left instructions that her headstone should read: 'Rosemary Desmond Boswell Lightband'.
The churchyard contains almost exclusively very old graves. One or two more recent are not inscribed with her mother's name, Gwendoline. There is the much bigger Havant Council Cemetery adjacent to it, which I have investigated with some thoroughness but that is not really what Neil Astley has said.
Reading his sentence more and more closely, he doesn't actually say there is a headstone with Rosemary's married name on it, only that she left such instructions. So I am at a loss and think three such fruitless visits are enough until I can find further information.It's a pleasant enough day out, a remote, country church and peaceful, photogenic graveyard but I've been there enough now without finding what I'm looking for.
