W. T. (William Thomas) Vincent

Born in 1835, W. T. Vincent, or William Thomas Vincent, was an English local historian and antiquarian closely associated with Woolwich. He wrote The Records of the Woolwich District and is best known today for In Search of Gravestones Old and Curious (1896), a book that looks at old churchyard memorials not just as objects, but as pieces of social history.

Vincent was active in the historical life of his community and is described in contemporary material as president of the Woolwich District Antiquarian Society. Other historical references also credit him as a founder of that society and connect him with journalism in Woolwich, showing how closely his writing grew out of local civic and historical interests.

What makes Vincent memorable is the way he paid attention to things many people passed by. In writing about gravestones, inscriptions, and forgotten memorial carvings, he helped preserve details of everyday history that might otherwise have disappeared. He died in 1920.