This great philanthropist died at Dawlish, Devon, on 27th June 1864 at the age of 74, having bequeathed his fortune to be divided among more than fifty charities, including the four major Church Societies of which he had been a life-long supporter.

John Dinham was buried on 2nd July 1864 in Exeter’s Bartholomew Street Cemetery by the Reverend R Lovatt of Bedford Chapel. He was interred in a vault in which his wife, Susannah, had been buried five years before.

A statue in white marble was erected to his memory in Northernhay Gardens in 1866. It was sculpted by E B Stephens ARA of London and bears the inscription “Erected by the Citizens of Exeter and others in memory of his piety, integrity and charity 1866”.

(From A Life of John Dinham by Sir Harold Papworth, sometime Priest-in-Charge, St Michael’s)