SMM+S

DelBoy

The Mortuary Chapel was built in 1884 by Patrick Allan-Fraser as a mausoleum for his family. It is located in the centre of the Western Cemetery in Arbroath.

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 11:54 pm Post subject:

That's some mausoleum! I had to look him up.

http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst1936.html

Patrick Allan-Fraser
1813 - 1890

Patron of the arts. Born Patrick Allan in Arbroath, the son of a weaving merchant, he gave up commerce and embarked on an artistic career. Training at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh and then in Europe, he returned to Scotland where he married the young widow Elizabeth Fraser-Baker of Hospitalfield in 1843. He embarked on a programme of estate management which quickly restored his wife's fortunes. An enthusiast for the arts and crafts movement, Allan-Fraser remodelled Hospitalfield House into one of the finest 19th century country houses in Scotland.

A devoted art collector, Allan-Fraser was a patron of many Scottish artists and promoted international exchange as President of the British Academy of Art in Rome. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1874 and was also known for his portraits.

He lies buried in a Mortuary Chapel of his own design in Arbroath's Western Cemetery. The Patrick-Allen Fraser of Hospitalfield Trust was established in his honour to promote young artists and run Hospitalfield for the purposes of education.

And the chapel...

Situated in Arbroath's Western Cemetery in E Angus, the Mortuary Chapel was designed and built in 1884 by the owner of Hospitalfield House, Patrick Allan-Fraser (1813-96) as a mausoleum for himself and his family. A grand edifice of neo-Gothic architecture, the Chapel has stonework, created by Fraser's stonemason, John Peters, unrivalled by anything in Scotland, including carvings of a traditional Highland funeral procession. It was gifted to Arbroath Town Council as a non-denominational chapel.
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Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project