The remains of Captain Matthew Flinders have been found by archaeologists excavating a burial ground near Euston Station in London. Flinders was an English navigator and cartographer who led the first circumnavigation of Australia and identified it as a continent, and the discovery of his remains was made during a dig taking place in the former burial ground at St James’s, where the station for the HS2 railway route will be built.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, unveils a statue in honour of Captain Matthew Flinders, the first cartographer to circumnavigate Australia and identify it as a continent, at Australia House in 2014. Image: Arthur Edwards – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Having been born in 1774, Flinders died in July 1814 aged 40. The location of his grave was lost after the headstone was removed following the expansion of Euston Station into part of the burial ground in the 1840s. Archaeologists have now reported that they have been located and were identified by the breast plate on top of the coffin, which as it was made of lead, had not corroded. It is planned that the late explorer’s skeleton will be studied to see whether life at sea left its mark on him and what more can learned about Flinders.
A statue of Captain Matthew Flinders at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Victoria. Image: Jeff Greenberg/UIG/Getty Images
His chief accomplishment is that he navigated around the entire coast of Australia as commander of HMS Investigator, confirming it as a continent. He wanted the name Australia to be applied to the continent, at a time when “New Holland” and “Terra Australis” were still in general use, and in 1824 the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.
To mark the bicentenary of this death, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, unveiled a statue of Flinders and his cat Trim at Australia House, which was later installed at Euston Station. While Flinders is immortalised in both Australia and the UK along with his faithful ship’s cat, the pair were also accompanied on the journey by Bungaree, an Aboriginal Australian and the only Indigenous Australian on board the ship, who played a vital role in the expedition.
Once the examination of the remains have been completed, Captain Matthew Flinders will be reinterred at St James’s Gardens.
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