Harry Gordon Selfridge

J decided to sleep on her Mum's sofa again, I stayed at the B&B we've booked nearby.

After Breakfast I walked across the road to St Mark's churchyard. I have never seen so many primroses in flower in one place, scattered amongst the graves. Lots of (Spanish) bluebells too. A delightful place (I love old graveyards).

I was looking for the grave of Harry Gordon Selfridge, the retail magnate. Born in Wisconsin in the USA in 1858, he worked his way to a fortune in the country of his birth, opened the store on Oxford Street after spotting a gap in the market, introducing a new form of retailing in the UK, but died destitute in Putney in 1947.

He lies next to his mother and wife, in one of the most unprepossessing parts of the churchyard. They are here because he rented Highcliffe Castle for years, and his mother and wife died whilst they were here (1918 and 1924 respectively). He wanted to lie beside them in the end.

I am blipping from my phone this weekend, seeing if I can take reasonable photos without my camera.