Cornelius Van Dun

On the north wall of St Margaret's Church Westminster is a painted stone bust to Cornelius Van Dun who died in 1577. His wife Gylbarte was buried in the church on 31st May 1568. The bust shows him in the scarlet costume of a Yeoman of the Guard, with a crown and a Tudor rose. The inscription below his bust reads: 

Cornelius Van Dun lieth here. Borne at Breda in Brabant, Souldiour [soldier] with K.Henry at Turney [Tournai], Yeaman of the Gard and Usher to K.Henry, K.Edward, Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth. Of honest and vertuous lyfe a careful man for pore folke who in the ende of this town did buyld for pore widowes 20 howses of his owne coste.

Around the bust:

Died A.D. 1577. Buried ye 4 of Sept, aged 94

His almshouses for poor widows were in Petty France and St Ermin's Hill in Westminster and survived there until 1850. His name is recalled in Vandon Street Westminster.

Further reading

Van Dun's will is at the City of Westminster Archives Centre.