Marie Celeste Hora

James Hora (1826-1917) erected two memorials to his wife Marie Celeste (de Valerie) (1826-1875) - a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey and a small tablet in St Margaret's Westminster.

The window, by Burlison & Grylls, was destroyed by blast in 1940. It was situated over the door to Poets' Corner and was known as the St Edward window as it depicted large figures of St Edward the Confessor and St John the Evangelist with smaller figures in the borders recalling the saint's life and death and the early legends of the Abbey. At this period the Dean of Westminster was endeavouring to fill most of the large plain glass windows with stained glass. It was dedicated on 13th October 1903. A few of the figures of kings and queens that remained after war damage were included in windows in Cheyneygates in the Abbey precincts and in a small window above Henry V's Chantry in the Abbey. James offered the window:

In memory of his late wife who in her young life devotedly shared with him the hardships endured by early Australian Colonists.

They had married at St James, Paddington on 24th December 1846 and she died aged 48.

The tablet which still remains in St Margaret's reads:

+Marie Celeste beloved wife of James Hora FRCI of Victoria Street Westminster fell asleep Febr. 21st 1875. Her remains are interred in God's Acre, Ottershaw, Surrey