Matthew Flinders: explorer’s grave discovered in London

The remains of the British explorer who led the first expedition to circumnavigate Australia have been found at a burial site beneath Euston Station in London.

Captain Matthew Flinders is credited with naming Australia after sailing around the continent between 1801 and 1803. He died at the age of 40 in 1814, and was buried at St James’s cemetery in the English capital, but “the headstone marking his final resting place was removed following the expansion of Euston” in the 1840s, reports the BBC.

“For years, experts thought the explorer was buried under what became platform 15” at the busy rail hub, adds Australia’s ABC News.

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But this week a coffin bearing Flinders’ name was found by archaeologists working on a dig at a nearby site on which the HS2 rail route will be built, reports the London Evening Standard.

His remains were among at least 40,000 bodies being exhumed, many of which will never be identified owing to the use of easily eroded tin for the breast plates on the coffins.

However, the plate on Flinders’ coffin was made of lead and was still legible.

Helen Wass, the HS2 projects’s heritage chief, said: “I was rather hoping that there would be a ship or an anchor, something that linked him to his nautical endeavours. But it’s just so exciting to see that here and to know that this was his grave.”

The discovery has attracted much attention in Australia, where Flinders is considered a national icon.

Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, George Brandis, said: “This is a very exciting moment for Australia. It is serendipitous the discovery of the remains of Matthew Flinders, one of the great early explorers, should come in the week of Australia Day.”

Brandis called for a “fitting” memorial to be raised over Flinders’ final resting place.

The burial site also includes the remains of other notable figures, including the founder of Christie’s auction house and US boxer Bill Richmond.