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Burials at Westminster Abbey

  • Charles DickensOn the 12th of May 1824, twelve-year-old Charles Dickens boarded a small boat to visit his father inside the Marshalsea debtors' prison in Southwark.
  • J. J. ThomsonJoseph John Thomson entered the world on the 18th of December 1856 in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. His mother Emma Swindells came from a local textile family…
  • Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin was born on the 12th of February 1809 at his family's home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He was the fifth of six children of…
  • Rudyard KiplingRudyard Kipling was born on the 30th of December 1865 in Bombay, British India. His parents were Alice Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling.
  • Neville ChamberlainArthur Neville Chamberlain entered the world on the 18th of March 1869 at a house called Southbourne in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham.
  • Thomas HardyThomas Hardy was born on the 2nd of June 1840 in Higher Bockhampton, a small hamlet east of Dorchester. His father worked as a stonemason and local builder…
  • 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 IElizabeth was born on the 7th of September 1533 at Greenwich Palace. Her mother Anne Boleyn had been Henry VIII's second wife.
  • William III of EnglandOn the 4th of November 1650, a boy named William Henry was born in The Hague. His father died eight days before the birth from smallpox.
  • Alfred, Lord TennysonAlfred Tennyson was born on the 6th of August 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father George Clayton Tennyson served as rector there from 1807 until his…
  • Henry VII of EnglandHenry Tudor was born on the 28th of January 1457 inside Pembroke Castle. This stone fortress stood in Little England beyond Wales, an English-speaking…
  • 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 JonsonBenjamin Jonson was born in June 1572, possibly on the 11th day of that month. His father died a single month before his birth after losing property and…
  • Ernest RutherfordErnest Rutherford was born on the 30th of August 1871 in Brightwater, New Zealand. He was the fourth child among twelve siblings born to James Rutherford and…
  • James VI and IJames Charles Stuart was born on the 19th of June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle. He became King of Scotland at the age of thirteen months after his mother, Mary…
  • Samuel JohnsonOn the 18th of September 1709, a baby named Samuel Johnson did not cry when he was born in Lichfield. His mother Sarah had been forty years old during the…
  • William Pitt the YoungerOn the 28th of May 1759, a boy named William Pitt was born at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes in Kent. He entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, on the…
  • Mary, Queen of ScotsOn the 8th of December 1542, a baby girl was born at Linlithgow Palace in West Lothian. Her father, King James V, died six days later on the 14th of December.
  • Edward IIIOn the 25th of January 1327, a fourteen-year-old boy named Edward was proclaimed king in London. His father, King Edward II, had been forced to relinquish…
  • Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer was born in London, most likely in the early 1340s. Some accounts, including his monument, suggest he was born in 1343, though the precise…
  • Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier was born on the 22nd of May 1907 in Dorking, Surrey. He entered the world as the youngest child of Reverend Gerard Kerr Olivier and…
  • Isaac NewtonIsaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, the 25th of December 1642 at Woolsthorpe Manor in Lincolnshire. His father had died three months before the birth.
  • Clement AttleeClement Richard Attlee was born on the 3rd of January 1883 in Putney, Surrey. He grew up in a two-storey villa with a large garden and tennis court.
  • George Frideric HandelIn 1685, a boy named George Frideric Handel was born in the city of Halle within the Duchy of Magdeburg. His father Georg Händel worked as a barber-surgeon…
  • Edward the ConfessorEdward the Confessor was born between 1003 and 1005 in Islip, Oxfordshire. He spent a quarter of a century away from England during his childhood exile.
  • 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 arrived in the world at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, during early 1563. Very little documentation exists regarding his…
  • Edward VIOn the 12th of October 1537, Prince Edward was born in the private apartments of his mother at Hampton Court Palace. The news spread through London with such…
  • Robert StephensonRobert Stephenson was born on the 16th of October 1803 at Willington Quay, east of Newcastle upon Tyne. His father George worked as a brakesman on a…
  • Edmund SpenserEdmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552. His parentage remains obscure to modern historians, though evidence suggests he was…
  • William CamdenWilliam Camden was born in London on the 2nd of May 1551. His father Sampson Camden belonged to The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers.
  • Stephen HawkingStephen William Hawking was born on the 8th of January 1942 in Oxford to Frank and Isobel Eileen Hawking. His mother came from a family of doctors in Glasgow…
  • John DrydenJohn Dryden was born in the village rectory of Aldwincle near Thrapston in Northamptonshire. His father Erasmus Dryden belonged to a landowning gentry family…
  • Thomas TelfordThomas Telford was born on the 9th of August 1757 at Glendinning, a hill farm east of Eskdalemuir Kirk. His father John Telford died shortly after his birth.
  • David GarrickDavid Garrick was born at the Angel Inn on Widemarsh Street in Hereford on the 19th of February 1716. His family traced their roots to French Huguenots who…
  • Nicholas Rowe (writer)Nicholas Rowe was born on the 20th of June 1674 in Little Barford, Bedfordshire. His father John worked as a barrister and sergeant-at-law before dying in…
  • 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 Filippo Vincenzo Francesco Saverio Clementi was born in Rome on the 23rd of January 1752. He entered the world as the eldest child of Nicolò Clementi…