George Preston

In the section of the cloister of Westminster Abbey called the Dark Cloister is a wall memorial to the Reverend George Preston. This memorial was moved from the north cloister, where he was buried on 11th September 1841. He was a son of the Reverend George Preston and brother of Isaac (who with his son was murdered in 1848). Chaplain of the Foundling Hospital he was also vicar of Christ Church, Newgate in London. His wife was Emma Van Heythuysen. They had six children, several of whom were baptised at St John's Westminster. Their son Edward was baptised in the Abbey on 2nd February 1826 and daughter Jane Emma, aged 2, was buried on 23rd February 1830. At Westminster School he was Usher from 1818-1826 and Under Master from 1826. He lived in Dean's Yard adjoining the Abbey and at West Heath, Erith, Kent. The Latin inscription can be translated:

Near here is buried George Preston M.A. priest in the Catholic Church in England, one time pupil of the Royal School of Westminster [Westminster School], soon a junior master, and lastly for more than fifteen years, second master. A man of noble nature, honest, kine, and pious, while conscientiously fulfilling the duties of his most onerous office, he was seized by a sudden illness. He died on the 8th of the Ides of September [ie. 6th] 1841 in the 52nd year of his age. Some of his pupils, both King's Scholars and Oppidans, placed this monument here out of piety. H.M.P.C.C. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

The initials at the end are presumably those of the boys who put up the memorial.