A memorial in Westminster Abbey to the literary sisters Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë has been amended to incorporate the diaeresis (double dot) over the “e” of the names. These had been missing from the memorial because it was installed, 85 years ago.
The Dean of Westminster, the Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, was approached by the journalist and Brontë historian Sharon Wright, and agreed to make the amendment. The work has since been accomplished by an Abbey stonemason and Abbey conservator. Ms Wright has been researching the mystery surrounding the omission of the diaereses.
The memorial is an oblong tablet of Huddlestone stone (600 x 600mm), in Poets’ Corner, near other famous writers including Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens. It was installed on 8 October 1939, sponsored by the Brontë Society. A letter within the Abbey archive, dated 1 May 1939, from Donald Hopewell, President of the Society, to the Dean of Westminster, gives clear instructions for the wording of the memorial, which incorporates the diaereses. But the puzzle of the misspelled tablet stays.
Dean Hoyle said: “I’m grateful to have this omission identified and now put right. Memory is just not a locked cupboard, but an energetic thing”
