Needle-in-haystack search ends with discovery of explorer’s body
Against the odds, and just in time for Australia Day, Matthew Flinders has been found.
The body of the famous British explorer who helped name, and was the first to circumnavigate, Australia was thought lost when the cemetery he was buried in 205 years ago became a public park behind London’s Euston station.
But a huge archeological dig, part of preparations for a $104 billion rail project, has defied predictions and identified Flinders’ remains among thousands to be removed from the site.
The discovery has been described as Australia’s version of the recent rediscovery of Richard III, and experts hope Flinders’ skeleton will yield new insights into his life and work. After a long forensic examination, those remains will be reinterred, with the blessing of the Church of England, in a new site in or near London.
And Australia’s high commissioner in London George Brandis has called for a ‘‘fitting’’ memorial to be raised over his final resting place.
Helen Wass, the head of the archeological team at the HS2 rail project, said it was a ‘‘really exciting’’ discovery, not least because they had thought it so unlikely that Flinders would be identified.
‘‘It was really a needle in a haystack kind of thing,’’ she said. ‘‘I have been telling everybody the chances of finding him were remote. But we found him.’’
The organisers believe this is the biggest post-medieval graveyard excavation in British history.
Wass’ team were patiently scraping away at the soil to uncover the old graveyard which took an estimated 60,000 burials.
The church told them any and all human remains must be treated with the utmost care and dignity.
Most of those recovered will never be identified, as the gravestones are long gone and many coffins lacked nameplates. Some had tin plates, which the soil conditions degraded into illegibility in the intervening century and a half since the graveyard was decommissioned.
But, just before Christmas, the team’s researchers found a new clue in old records: the name of the person buried next to Flinders.
That suggested Flinders was buried somewhere in the next section they planned to excavate.
And sure enough, on January 15 one of the workers’ trowels tapped down onto a hard surface: a lead coffin breastplate with Flinders’ name on it. Polished up, the cursive inscription on the ornately decorated plate became clear: ‘‘Capt Matthew Flinders RN. Died 19 July , 1814. Aged 40 Years.’’
‘‘It doesn’t get much better than that,’’ Wass said.
The lead in the plate had helped preserve parts of the wooden coffin, though the rest had crumbled away under the pressure and moisture of the earth.
And underneath were the remains of Flinders himself – a complete skeleton, though ‘‘not the best preserved’’, Wass said.
At the request of the church, she said, they were not releasing images of the remains, though they were filmed for a BBC documentary which would be released later this year.
Flinders’ bones, now washed and cleaned, rest in a forensic archaeology lab, where researchers will spend the next couple of years uncovering the secrets of a selection of those recovered from the site.
They hope the remains can give new insights into Flinders’ life, and possibly his death – which history tells us was from kidney failure after a long illness.
So far, all we know is Flinders’ height – a modest 1.6m.
But cutting-edge techniques could help determine such things as the type of water he drank and his medical history.
‘‘Did his life at sea leave a trace on the skeleton?’’ Wass said.
‘‘A lot of different techniques can be used that may provide further evidence.’’
The breastplate will also be analysed, including its script and artwork, to see if it tells a story about Flinders’ burial.
Legally, nobody owns human remains.
A Church of England spokesman said ecclesiastic law required all bodies disinterred from an old graveyard to be reburied together, as close as possible to their original home.
The church does not usually make exceptions for significant historical figures.
The church was still looking for a suitable place, ideally one that is already consecrated ground.
Though the remains do not need another funeral ‘‘it’s usually the case there is some sort of blessing or service’’, he said.
Church law considers anything above ground to be the property of descendants, but anything below ground counts as part of the remains that must be reinterred.
However, the spokesman said, the law was ‘‘less rigid’’ on this, and the church had been more likely to make exceptions for something like a plaque.
It would be up to the bishop of the diocese – in this case London – to rule on who should take possession and care of those artefacts recovered with the body.
The church ‘‘wouldn’t rule out’’ allowing Australia to have some artefact from the discovery, the spokesman said.
Wass said the breastplate would probably be replaced with a replica for the reburial.
HS2 was in discussion as to where things may go – it may give them to the Museum of London, which would put some artefacts in storage for posterity, and others on display.
Brandis said the remains should be reburied with ‘‘fitting tribute to his place in history’’.