Thomas Cribb was a bare-knuckle boxer in the 1800's. There is nothing particularly interesting about his life or death but what is interesting is the monument upon his grave. Upon his death in 1848 Cribb was buried in the churchyard of St, Mary's and St. Andrews church in Woolwich. A local 'legend' of that area is that his grave was originally just a stone block, but one night the majestic lion monument that stands to this day was erected, but no one knows who put it there. The grave stands alone under the cover of trees behind the old Odeon Cinema, a line of indistinguishable and undatable grave markers lean against the wall behind it.
Whilst looking into the facts of this story I have discovers that the monument was paid for by a subscription but there is no mention of how or when it arrived.
There is not a lot of information about Cribb's grave, but here is the limited amount that I did manage to track down.http://www.wardsbookofdays.com/11may.htm
