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Westminster Abbey

Who Is Buried There?

Virtually every royal burial for the nearly 500 years between the deaths of Henry III in 1272 and George II in 1760 took place in Westminster Abbey. The two notable exceptions were Henry VIII and Charles I, both of whom were buried at Windsor Castle. (All monarchs from George III onwards have since been interred at Windsor.)

David Livingstone's tomb
David Livingstone's tomb
© Dean & Chapter of Westminster Abbey 2003
The Abbey is also the final resting-place for the great and the good of the nation. Many of Britain’s most celebrated statesmen, scientists, writers and composers are buried here, while others among the notability – such as Shakespeare and Churchill – have memorials in the Abbey, even though their remains lie elsewhere.

This is a selection of the names you might look out for on a visit to the Abbey, and where to find them:

The nave

  • Clement Attlee (1883-1967) – Labour prime minister 1945-51, whose government oversaw the creation of the National Health Service and the disengagement from India.

  • Charles Darwin (1809-82) – naturalist, proponent of evolution, author of The Origin Of Species.

  • Ben Jonson (1572-1637) – dramatist, actor and Poet Laureate.

  • David Livingstone (1813-73) – explorer and medical missionary.

  • Isaac Newton (1643-1727) – physicist and mathematician.

  • Robert Stephenson (1803-59) – civil engineer, designer of railway bridges.



The north transept

Tomb, Mary Queen of Scots
The tomb of Mary Queen of Scots in Henry VII's Chapel
© Dean & Chapter of Westminster Abbey 2003
Buried here are three more of the great prime ministers:

  • William Pitt the Elder (1708-78).

  • His son, William Pitt the Younger (1759-1806).

  • William Gladstone (1809-98).



The south transept

Here you'll find the famous Poets’ Corner, final home of…

  • Novelist Charles Dickens (1812-70), composer, George Handel (1685-1759), actor, Laurence Olivier (1907-89), poets Robert Browning (1812-89), Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400), John Dryden (1631-1700), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), Samuel Johnson (1709-84), Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), Edmund Spenser (1552-99) and Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92).



North choir aisle

Appropriately enough, two composers are buried here:

  • Henry Purcell (1659-95).

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).



Henry VII's Chapel


  • Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
  • Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87)



Chapel of St Paul

Queen Elizabeth I's tomb
Queen Elizabeth I's tomb in Henry VII's Chapel
© Dean & Chapter of Westminster Abbey 2003
Here lies the father of the modern postal system, Rowland Hill (1795-1879).


Gone but not forgotten

  • Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) was originally buried in the Abbey, but his remains were exhumed on the orders of Charles II in 1661, and subjected to a posthumous hanging at Tyburn.

  • Admiral Robert Blake (1599-1657), parliamentarian and naval commander during Cromwell’s Commonwealth, was buried in the Abbey too, but was also exhumed after the Restoration.