St Mary Magdalene, Richmond

James Thomson

Richard Yates in a dozen roles, 1826 lithograph

• Richard Attenborough, Lord Attenborough (d. 2014), actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and politician, who lived on Richmond Green. His ashes are interred in a vault beside those of his daughter Jane Holland and his granddaughter, Lucy, both of whom had died in the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004.[8]
• There is a memorial inside the church to popular novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon, who lived in Richmond, died in 1915 and is interred in Richmond Cemetery.[9]
• Henry Brouncker, 3rd Viscount Brouncker (d. 1688), was Cofferer of the Household to Charles II, and served as Gentleman of the Bedchamber to James, Duke of York (who became James II). He is buried at the church and there is also a memorial to him.
• The oldest monument in the church is a brass plaque to Robert Cotton (d. 1591), a courtier to Mary I and Elizabeth I.
• The church has a memorial to Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (d. 1816), founder of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and his grandfather Sir Matthew Decker (d. 1749), a merchant and writer on trade who was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1729.
• The local philanthropist William Hickey (d. 1727), whose bequest funded the building of Hickey's Almshouses in Richmond, is buried in an altar tomb in the churchyard.
• Barbara Hofland (d. 1844), author and poet, is buried in the church, and there is also a memorial to her.[10]
• The Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, who died in 1833, is buried in the church.[11] There is also a memorial to him inside the church.
• Barabara Lowther (d 1805), by John Flaxman.[12]
• Samuel Paynter, of Richmond, who died in 1844, is buried in the church. He was High Sheriff of Surrey in 1839.[13] He is commemorated by a memorial tablet with two marble full-length angels, by Edward Hodges Baily RA FRS, who was famous for sculpting Admiral Horatio Nelson on Nelson's column in London's Trafalgar Square.[14]
• The poet James Thomson, who wrote the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia!" and died in 1748, is buried near the font. There is a brass memorial to him inside the church: it was placed there by David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan in 1792.[15][16]
• George Wakefield (d. 1776) and his sons Thomas Wakefield (who succeeded his father as Minister at the church until his death in 1806) and Gilbert Wakefield (d. 1801), scholar and controversialist, are commemorated by memorials on the north wall.
• The actor Richard Yates (d. 1796) was buried at his own request in the chancel by his second wife Mary Ann Yates, who was also a well-known actress; her age is recorded as 49 although she was probably born in Birmingham in 1728.[17]

The tower contains a ring of eight bells. They bear dates between 1680 and 1761 and were re-hung in a clockwise ring in the 1980s. The tenor bell weighs almost 19 cwt.[18]

The organ was built in 1907[19] by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd, who also cleaned it in 1929[19] and restored it in 1965.[20] A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.[19][20]