Bronte sisters’ memorial amended 85 years later

A memorial to the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne has had diaereses added above the letter “e” of the authors’ surname, 85 years after it was unveiled.

The rectangular stone tablet is in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey, where writers including Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen are commemorated.

The inscriptions were installed in 1939 as a tribute to the novelists, who were born in Bradford and raised in the village of Haworth.

The omission of the diaereses – two dots which indicate the pronunciation of the name – was spotted by historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, who raised the issue with the Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle.

Dr Hoyle asked the abbey’s stonemason to add the dots and its conservator to paint them.

Ms Wright, who went to Poets’ Corner for a research trip, said the missing diaereses “really troubled” her as the names of the Brontë sisters were spelled incorrectly.

“They didn’t have the correct punctuation on the “e” so it sounded more like “Bront” not “Bronte”,” she said.

The Brontë name evolved from their father Patrick’s Irish surname of Prunty or Brunty when he entered St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1802.

A letter in the abbey archive from Donald Hopewell, president of the Brontë Society, to the Dean of Westminster, dated 1 May 1939, gave clear instructions for the wording of the memorial, which included the diaereses – but they were never incorporated.

Ms Wright said: “I am immensely proud that the correct, unique and immortal name of Charlotte, Emily and Anne is finally complete in Poets’ Corner.

“It is a Brontë story with a happy and timely ending.”

Dr Hoyle added: “I am grateful to have this omission pointed out and now put right.

“Memory is not a locked cupboard, but an active thing and the Brontë Society have given us a glimpse of their commitment to a lively remembering.”

Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, said she was “absolutely thrilled”.

“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.

“I’m sure that everyone at the Brontë Society and the Brontë Parsonage Museum, as well as Brontë enthusiasts across the world, will be very excited to learn about this new episode in the enduring story of Charlotte, Emily and Anne.”

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