Curated category
Burials at Westminster Abbey
- Charles DickensCharles Dickens earned six shillings a week pasting labels onto pots of boot blacking in a tumble-down warehouse overrun with rats.
- J. J. ThomsonJ. J. Thomson, born on the 18th of December 1856 in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, grew up in a household shaped by antiquarian books and a mother rooted in the…
- Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin once jotted his thoughts about marriage on two scraps of paper, drawing two columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry".
- Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling was born on the 30th of December 1865 in Bombay, and by the time he died in 1936, he had become something no single label can hold.
- Neville ChamberlainNeville Chamberlain stepped off a plane at Heston Aerodrome on the 30th of September 1938 and waved a single sheet of paper at the waiting crowd.
- Thomas HardyThomas Hardy died at Max Gate on the 11th of January 1928, but not before dictating one final poem to his wife from his deathbed.
- Anne of ClevesAnne of Cleves entered the world on the 28th of June or the 22nd of September 1515 in Düsseldorf. Her father was John III, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, a man…
- Elizabeth IAt Tilbury in Essex on the 8th of August 1588, Elizabeth I rode before her militias wearing a silver breastplate over a white velvet dress.
- William III of EnglandWilliam III of England was born eight days after his father died. That timing shaped everything. When stadtholder William II, Prince of Orange died of…
- Alfred, Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson was born on the 6th of August 1809 in Somersby, a small village in Lincolnshire, and by the time he died on the 6th of October 1892, lines…
- Henry VII of EnglandHenry VII was born on the 28th of January 1457 at Pembroke Castle, the posthumous son of a father who had already been dead three months by the time he drew…
- Mary I of EnglandMary Tudor entered the world on the 18th of February 1516 at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich. She was the only child of King Henry VIII and his first…
- Elizabeth of YorkElizabeth entered the world on the 11th of February 1466 at the Palace of Westminster. Her christening took place in Westminster Abbey, sponsored by her…
- Ben JonsonBen Jonson killed a man in a field on the 22nd of September 1598 and walked away from the gallows by reciting a Bible verse.
- Ernest RutherfordErnest Rutherford was born on the 30th of August 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand, the fourth of twelve children, and he died with a burial spot beside Isaac…
- James VI and IJames VI and I was born on the 19th of June 1566 inside Edinburgh Castle, the only son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson was touched by Queen Anne on the 30th of March 1712, when he was barely two years old, in a ritual meant to cure the scrofula scarring his…
- William Pitt the YoungerWilliam Pitt the Younger became Britain's prime minister at the age of 24, the youngest person ever to hold that office in British or world history.
- Mary, Queen of ScotsMary, Queen of Scots was six days old when she became queen. Her father, King James V of Scotland, died on the 14th of December 1542 before he ever truly…
- Edward IIIEdward III was born at Windsor Castle on the 13th of November 1312, and a contemporary prophecy described him as "the boar that would come out of Windsor".
- Geoffrey ChaucerIn 1556, workers in Westminster Abbey moved a poet's bones into a new and more ornate tomb. The man had died over 150 years earlier, on the 25th of October…
- Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier was born on the 22nd of May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey, the youngest child of a nomadic Church of England clergyman who never quite found…
- Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton said his mother told him he was so small at birth that he could have fit inside a quart mug. He was born prematurely on Christmas Day, the…
- Clement AttleeClement Attlee walked into Buckingham Palace on the 26th of July 1945 to be appointed Prime Minister. King George VI stood waiting.
- George Frideric HandelZadok the Priest has sounded at every British coronation since 1727, and George Frideric Handel wrote it. The German-born composer who supplied that anthem…
- Edward the ConfessorEdward the Confessor died on the 5th of January 1066, and within a year, England had been torn apart. Three men would claim or hold the throne he left vacant.
- Henry Carey, 1st Baron HunsdonHenry Carey entered the world on the 4th of March 1526 as the second child of William Carey and Mary Boleyn. His mother was the sister of Anne Boleyn, who…
- Michael DraytonMichael Drayton was born in Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in early 1563, and he would spend the next seven decades producing a body of work that…
- Edward VIEdward VI was born on the 12th of October 1537 at Hampton Court Palace, and the entire realm erupted in celebration. Bonfires blazed across England.
- Robert StephensonRobert Stephenson was born on the 16th of October 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne, to a father who would become known to history as the…
- Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser died in London on the 13th of January 1599, and according to Ben Jonson, he died "for want of bread". That claim was almost certainly false.
- William CamdenWilliam Camden was born in London on the 2nd of May 1551, into a city that had barely begun to reckon with its own past.
- Stephen HawkingStephen Hawking spent his final years communicating at roughly one word per minute, twitching a single cheek muscle to select letters from a screen.
- John DrydenJohn Dryden was attacked at around 8 pm on the 18th of December 1679, beaten by hired thugs in Rose Alley behind the Lamb and Flag pub in Covent Garden.
- Thomas TelfordThomas Telford was born on the 9th of August 1757 on a hill farm called Glendinning, three miles east of Eskdalemuir Kirk in the rural parish of Westerkirk…
- David GarrickDavid Garrick stepped onto the stage at Goodman's Fields Theatre on the 19th of October 1741 and, within weeks, had London completely transfixed.
- Nicholas Rowe (writer)Nicholas Rowe died on the 6th of December 1718, and within a year the King of England had sent his widow a pension. Not as condolence, exactly. As payment.
- Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of WillingdonFreeman Freeman-Thomas entered the world on the 12th of September 1866 in England. His father, Freeman Frederick Thomas, served as an officer in the rifle…
- Muzio ClementiMuzio Clementi was born in Rome on the 23rd of January 1752, the eldest of seven children of a silversmith named Nicolò.