party for Christian Aid, held in the churchyard after the Sunday sermon, was stormed by armed police. An attendee said that the vicar's wife was “almost knocked over by a policeman with a huge machine gun”, but “people just carried on drinking their tea” in a display of typical British fortitude even though “all these armed police bursting in was like the film Hot Fuzz”. The police proceeded to the adjacent St Alfege Park, where a man was arrested and a firearm found. The church is currently used to celebrate "Founder's Day" of Addey and Stanhope School and The John Roan School. Notables buried here Notable people buried in and around the church include the Renaissance choirmaster and composer William Newark (died 1509, no surviving memorial), Richard Bower (died 1561), Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal 1545-1561, the composer Thomas Tallis (died 1585), the courtier Elizabeth Roper (died 1658), the merchant Sir John Lethieullier (died 1719) on the outer south-west corner of the church, the English-born explorer of Canada Henry Kelsey (died 1724), General James Wolfe, the victor over the French in Canada but who died in the process at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the actress Lavinia Fenton (died 1760), and the MP Sir James Creed (died 1762) against the outer north wall. Sarah Barrett Moulton, the Jamaican-born schoolgirl (1783–1795) who was the subject of the celebrated painting Pinkie (shown above right), was buried in the church after dying aged twelve, just a year after her portrait had been painted. The merchant, Lloyd's underwriter and art collector John Julius Angerstein (died 1823), who was a churchwarden in the early 19th century, is also buried here. Literary connection In Charles Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend, Bella Wilfer marries John Rokesmith in St Alfege Church. In Tom McCarthy's novel C, after a Marinettiesque car crash, Serge Carrefax laughs from his position within the upturned chassis. This laughter is "a pleasant noise; reminds him of liturgical chants and whispers echoing around St. Alfege's interior." See also List of churches and cathedrals of London References External links Mystery Worshipper Report at the Ship of Fools website Churches completed in 1702 18th-century Church of England church buildings Greenwich Grade I listed buildings in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Greenwich Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom Nicholas Hawksmoor buildings English Baroque church buildings Greenwich History of the Royal Borough