St. Michael's Chapel.
(The Warriors' Chapel)

Picture courtesy of Mike Young

The Archbishop that is buried at the very rear of this Chapel, Archbishop Stephen Langton, presided over the signing of the Magna Carta. In fact, poor old Archbishop Langton is so far to the back of the Chapel that his feet are actually in the yard outside! This most unfortunate situation occurred when the original Norman Chapel was redesigned in the early 15th Century to the more modern perpendicular style. Rather than move the Archbishop, the new building was constructed over him.

In the centre of the Chapel is the tomb of Lady Margaret Holland, a descendant of Joan Holland, wife of the Black Prince, the work of Richard Beke. Lady Margaret is flanked by the figures her two husbands, both of whom pre-deceased her. That on her left is the Beaufort Earl of Somerset and on her right, with his feet supposedly resting on a copy of his pet dog, is Thomas, Duke of Clarence. Although the benefits of being locked inside the Chapel means that no harm comes to these fine alabaster figures, it always seems a great shame that the splendid craftmanship that created these figures cannot be viewed more closely. Many of the other memorials in this Chapel belong to the Thornhurst family.

Approximately in the centre of the top picture, held on a lectern by Bainbridge Reynolds, is the Book of Remembrance of The Royal East Kent Regiment, The Buff's. This is full of the names of officers and men that fell in the two World Wars. Each day at 11 a.m. while the brass bell once belonging to H.M.S. Canterbury is struck, a page of the book is turned - lest we forget. At one time, when I was growing up and the Regiment was still in existence, the smartest soldier on morning parade had the privilege (or this is how it was always told to me) of marching from the barracks at the top of St. Martin's Hill, to the Cathedral, to turn the page at the appointed time, on behalf of the Regiment. Sadly, the Regiment is no more due to cut backs and almalgamations and now the page is turned by a representative of the Cathedral.

Below is another picture of the Chapel which shows the gates commemorating the Buffs a little more clearly than the picture above. If you look carefully, you can just see The Book of Remembrance behind the central gate to the Chapel which is still turned at 11 a.m. each morning.