Life stories

Possibly the most famous of all people buried at Willesden, chemist Rosalind Franklin played a key part in the discovery of the structure of the human genetic code.

Samuel Moses ran a shipping fleet that plied between Australia and Britain, trading wool for consumer goods. He was the first person to be buried at Willesden Cemetery.

A beautician and blackmailer whose exploits were the sensation of mid-19th century crime reporting. She was prosecuted twice for fraud.

Descended from the Rothschild banking family of Frankfurt, Hannah became the richest woman in England and married a future prime minister.

Walter much preferred zoology to the family business of finance. He created a national scientific collection and was recipient of the “Balfour Declaration”, a milestone in the history of Zionism.

If you ever stopped to think who was H. Samuel, the person behind the name on the high street jewellery stores, you would possibly not conclude it was a Victorian Jewish lady from Liverpool.

Simeon Solomon was a leading light in the popular group of Victorian artists known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Solomon Joseph Solomon was an artist, member of the Royal Academy, who helped design camouflage during the First World War