Wolford Chapel

About

Wolford Chapel in Devon, England, is the burial place of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The building and land are publicly owned by the Canadian province of Ontario, and flies the Flag of Canada despite being in the English countryside. The chapel was part of the Simcoe Estate at Dunkeswell, near Honiton, Devon, in South West England and was built on John Graves Simcoe's commission in 1802, possibly on the site of Old Wulphere Church. The site is on the estate that the Simcoes had purchased at Wolford in order to build Wolford Lodge. Following Simcoe's death on 26 October 1806, the estate remained with the family until 1923 but was eventually sold and some parts were broken up. The Chapel, alongside most of the estate, was acquired by British publisher Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth.

Consideration of what to do with the chapel remained, and various ideas were put forward including transporting it to Canada. However, in 1966, Harmsworth decided to donate the chapel to the John Graves Simcoe Memorial Foundation on behalf of the people of Ontario.

On 27 September 1966, just under 160 years after Simcoe's death, Harmsworth gave a deed to then-Premier of...