Talking Stones - A Quiet Surrey Churchyard with Welsh Stories to Tell

A Quiet Surrey Churchyard with Welsh Stories to Tell

Shamley Green

Introduction to Shamley Green

Shamley Green is a historic Surrey village in the civil parish of Wonersh, lying about five miles south of Guildford and set within the Surrey Hills National Landscape. The village is centred around its broad cricket green, which has served as the heart of local life for more than a century, and is surrounded by timber‑framed houses, small farms, and woodland that reflect centuries of rural development. The Red Lion and the Bricklayers Arms, two long‑established public houses, continue to anchor the social life of the community. In 2013, Shamley Green featured in the BBC Horizon programme The Secret Life of the Cat, which concluded that the village had the highest density of domestic cats in the United Kingdom. The village’s origins stretch back to medieval times, with early spellings such as Shamele, Shambles, and Shamley Greene, and the name likely deriving from Old English elements meaning a bench or ridge clearing. Historically part of the Blackheath Hundred and the parish of Wonersh, the area includes ancient commons such as Lords Hill Common, recorded under various names from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Today, Shamley Green remains a thriving rural community with a village store, post office, primary school, nursery, and an active network of clubs and societies centred around Arbuthnot Hall.

Christ Church
Shamley Green

Christ Church, Shamley Green

Just outside the village stands Christ Church, the parish church of Shamley Green. Built in 1863 as a chapel of ease to serve the growing population of the Wonersh parish, it was elevated to full parish status in 1881. Designed in the Early English Gothic style, the church is now a Grade II listed building, valued for its architectural character and its role in the religious life of the community. The original churchyard surrounding the building had become full by 1900, prompting George Cubitt, 1st Baron Ashcombe, to donate additional land for an extension. This expanded burial ground, together with the older churchyard, forms Christ Church Cemetery, which today contains both Victorian and modern graves and includes several burials of national interest.

Christ Church Cemetery

Christ Church Cemetery is divided into two principal areas: the Old Churchyard, dating from the church’s foundation in 1863 to around 1900, and the New Cemetery, created after Lord Ashcombe’s donation of land. The Old Churchyard contains Victorian and Edwardian graves, including those connected with maritime tragedies and long‑established local families. The New Cemetery contains more recent burials and includes the graves of prominent figures such as Sir Harry Secombe, Tony Hart, and Captain John Selwyn Moll. Together, these two areas form a peaceful and historically rich burial ground that reflects both the local continuity of village life and the wider national stories that have touched Shamley Green.

Notable Burials: Connections with Swansea and Wales

Although Shamley Green is a small Surrey village, Christ Church Cemetery contains several burials with meaningful connections to Swansea and Wales, demonstrating how the history of this rural parish intersects with wider national narratives. These links are expressed most clearly through the lives of Sir Harry Secombe, Howard Simmonds, and Captain John Selwyn Moll, whose stories, in different ways, connect this quiet Surrey churchyard with Welsh cultural life, maritime tragedy, and the traditions of Welsh rugby.

Harry Seacombe

Sir Harry Secombe (1921–2001): Swansea’s Most Beloved Entertainer

Sir Harry Secombe, whose grave lies in the newer section of Christ Church Cemetery, remains one of the most cherished entertainers ever to emerge from Wales. Sir Harry Secombe, whose life and career were deeply rooted in his Welsh upbringing, was born in St Thomas, Swansea, and grew up in a Welsh‑speaking, chapel‑centred household that shaped both his humour and his later religious broadcasting. Even after establishing his long career in London and Surrey, he continued to identify strongly with his Welsh heritage, frequently recalling his Swansea childhood in interviews and performances. His elder brother, Frederick Secombe, who became Vicar of St Peter’s Church, Cockett, further reinforced the family’s enduring ties to the city.

Harry Seacombe
Christ Church, Shamley Green

Harry Seacombe
Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan 1970

His first radio broadcast took place in May 1944, performing for military audiences during the Second World War, and his breakthrough came soon afterwards with the Welsh radio series Welsh Rarebit. This success led to appearances on Variety Bandbox and a regular role in Educating Archie, establishing him as one of the most distinctive comic voices of his generation. In 1946 he joined London’s Windmill Theatre, where he met Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. Together they created The Goon Show, a programme that transformed British comedy and became one of the most influential broadcasts in the history of radio. Secombe’s dual career as comedian and singer flourished in the decades that followed, and in later life he became widely known for presenting religious and inspirational programmes. Despite his long residence in Surrey, he remained deeply attached to Swansea. His burial at Christ Church, alongside his wife Lady Myra Joan Secombe, reflects a life lived between two places: the city of his birth and the Surrey village that became his home.

Howard Simmonds
Christ Church, Shamley Green

Howard Simmonds (1878–1898): A Tragedy with Welsh Echoes

Llewellyn Couch
Danygraig Cemetery
credit - findagrave

Llewellyn Couch
Death Certificate

In the older section of Christ Church churchyard lies the grave of Howard Simmonds, aged twenty, a victim of the wreck of the SS Mohegan. The maritime tragedy of the Mohegan was widely reported in Wales because several Welsh crew members were among the dead, and the disaster was followed closely by Swansea newspapers. The return of Chief Officer Llewellyn Couch to Danygraig Cemetery created a direct link between the tragedy and the city, while

Captain Richard Griffiths

Captain Richard Griffith, master of the vessel, was also well known in Swansea and his actions were scrutinised in the Welsh press.

S.S. Mohegan

The Mohegan itself had a troubled history. Originally launched as the Cleopatra in 1898, she was built as a mixed passenger liner and cattle carrier, rated A1 at Lloyd’s, and equipped with eight watertight bulkheads, eight lifeboats, and modern pumping and lighting systems.

The Cambrian

Her maiden voyage revealed serious defects, including boiler feed failures and significant leaks, and after a slow return crossing she underwent extensive repairs before being renamed Mohegan. On 13 October 1898, she left Tilbury for New York with 57 passengers, 97 crew, and a cargo of spirits, beer, and antimony. As she travelled down the Channel at full speed, observers noted she was dangerously close to the coast. Despite warning rockets fired by the Coverack coastguard, the ship continued on course and struck the Maen Voes (Vase Rock) on the Manacles Reef at 6:50 pm on 14 October 1898. Her rudder was torn off, and she sank in under twenty minutes. Although she carried sufficient lifeboats, only two were launched, and both were lost in the surf. 106 people died, making it one of Cornwall’s most significant maritime disasters.

Mass grave
St. Keverne churchyard

Most victims were buried in a mass grave at St Keverne Churchyard, where the Atlantic Transport Company later installed the “Mohegan Window” as a memorial. Simmonds, however, was returned to Surrey and buried at Christ Church, Shamley Green. His grave therefore stands as a Surrey memorial to a disaster that resonated deeply across the Welsh coast and remains a defining tragedy of the Cornish maritime landscape.

John Selwyn Moll

Captain John Selwyn Moll (1913–1942): Indirect Welsh Links Through Rugby

Captain John Selwyn Moll, whose grave lies in Christ Church Cemetery, provides a more indirect but nonetheless meaningful connection to Wales through his distinguished rugby career. A further Welsh connection is found in Moll’s involvement in a sporting world in which Welsh players were particularly prominent. His selection for the 1936 British Lions tour of Argentina brought him into close association with Welsh rugby talent, and his appearances for the Barbarians and Rosslyn Park during the war years placed him in regular contact with Welsh servicemen’s teams.

The 1936 British Lions tour of Argentina was a landmark expedition — the first time a British combined side had ever toured the country, and one now recognised by historians as an official Lions tour. The squad, captained by Peter Cranmer, included players from all four Home Nations, among them several influential Welsh internationals whose presence shaped the team’s fast, open, attacking style. The tour consisted of 10 matches, all of which the Lions won, scoring 399 points and conceding only 12. The three unofficial test matches against Argentina were decisive victories, with scorelines of 23–0, 34–3, and 41–0. Contemporary Argentine reports praised the visitors’ “precision, speed, and invention,” qualities strongly associated with Welsh rugby at the time. For Moll, playing alongside Welsh teammates on such a pioneering tour placed him firmly within a rugby culture in which Wales exerted a powerful influence, reinforcing the indirect Welsh connection that links his story to the wider theme of this article.

Newmarket Journal

Born in Greenwich in 1913, Moll worked for Lloyds Bank before establishing himself as a talented rugby player. Between 1932 and 1938 he played for Lloyds Bank RFC, later joining Blackheath from 1938 to 1940. His selection for the British Lions placed him among the leading rugby figures of his generation, and his involvement with the Barbarians, a club with strong Welsh associations, further embedded him in a rugby culture in which Wales played a central role. During his education at Bedford School, Moll served in the Army Cadet Force before joining the Northumberland Hussars of the Territorial Army. At the outbreak of the Second World War he enlisted with the Royal Engineers, later receiving a commission in The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), eventually attaining the rank of Captain.

John Selwyn Moll
Shamley Green Christ Church

In July 1942, while stationed at West Stow Camp near Bury St Edmunds, Moll was found in his bed suffering from a revolver wound to the head. According to contemporary reports in the Newmarket Journal, he was discovered alive but gravely injured and died shortly afterwards. At the inquest, military colleagues and medical staff testified that Moll had appeared cheerful, stable, and in good spirits in the days leading up to the incident, with no signs of depression or mental disturbance. The evidence suggested that the shooting may have been accidental, possibly occurring while he was handling or cleaning his service revolver, but the precise circumstances could not be established. The coroner therefore returned an open verdict, reflecting both the uncertainty surrounding the event and the absence of any indication of intent.

The newspaper report also emphasised Moll’s distinguished rugby career, noting his appearances for Blackheath, the Barbarians, and his participation in the 1936 British Lions tour of Argentina. His death at the age of twenty‑nine brought a premature end to a life marked by sporting achievement and military service. His burial at Christ Church Cemetery, Shamley Green, preserves the memory of a sportsman whose career intersected with Welsh rugby culture at a significant moment in its history, and whose untimely death added a note of poignancy to the story of this quiet Surrey churchyard.