Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to as Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English monarchs.

Burials and Memorials

Henry III rebuilt the Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor whose memorial and relics were placed in the Sanctuary. Henry III was buried nearby as were the Plantagenet kings of England, their wives and relatives. Subsequently, most Kings and Queens of England were buried here, although Henry VIII and Charles I are buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, as are all monarchs and royals since George II.

Related Topics:
Henry III - Edward the Confessor - Plantagenet - Henry VIII - Charles I - St George's Chapel - Windsor Castle - George II

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Aristocrats were buried in side chapels and monks and people associated with the Abbey were buried in the Cloisters and other areas. One of these was Geoffrey Chaucer, who was buried here as he had apartments in the Abbey where he was employed as master of the Kings Works. Other poets were buried around Chaucer in what became known as Poets' Corner. Abbey musicians such as Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work. Subsequently it became an honour to be buried or memorialised here. The practice spread from aristocrats and poets to generals, admirals, politicians, scientists, doctors, etc., etc. These include:

Related Topics:
Abbey - Geoffrey Chaucer - Poets' Corner - Henry Purcell

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Buried

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Nave

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• Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee
• Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts
• Charles Darwin
• James Clerk Maxwell
• J.J. Thompson
• Saint Edward the Confessor
• Ben Jonson
• David Livingstone
• Sir Isaac Newton
• Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford
• William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
• The Unknown Warrior
• George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
• Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox

North Transept

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• William Ewart Gladstone
• William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
• William Pitt the Younger

South Transept

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Poets' Corner

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• Robert Adam
• Robert Browning
• William Camden
• Thomas Campbell
• Geoffrey Chaucer
• William Congreve
• Abraham Cowley
• William Davenant
• Charles Dickens
• John Dryden
• Adam Fox
• David Garrick
• John Gay
• George Frederick Handel
• Thomas Hardy
• Dr Samuel Johnson
• Rudyard Kipling
• Thomas Macaulay
• John Masefield
• Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier
• Thomas Parr
• Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• Edmund Spenser
• Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson

Cloisters

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• Aphra Behn

North Choir Aisle

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• Henry Purcell
• Ralph Vaughan Williams

Commemorated

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• William Shakespeare, buried Stratford-upon-Avon
• Sir Winston Churchill, buried Bladon, Oxfordshire
• Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, buried Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire
• Adam Lindsay Gordon, buried Australia
• Paul Dirac, buried Florida
• Oscar Wilde(in a stained glass window unveiled in 1995)http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/westmin.htm
• Ten 20-century Christian martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues above the Great West Door. Unveiled in 1998, these are, from left to right:
• St. Maximilian Kolbe
• Manche Masemola
• Janani Luwum
• Elizabeth of Russia
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Óscar Romero
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Esther John
• Lucian Tapiedi
• Wang Zhiming

Removed

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The following were buried in the abbey but later removed on the orders of Charles II

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• Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
• Admiral Robert Blake