Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey - wikipedia Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey Honouring individuals with Burials and Memorials in Westminster Abbey has a long tradition. Contents 1 History 2 Burials 2.1 Monarchs and their consorts 2.2 Other monarchs and consorts 2.3 Nave 2.4 North Transept 2.5 South Transept 2.6 Cloisters 2.7 North Choir Aisle 2.8 South Choir Aisle 2.9 Ambulatory Chapels 2.9. 1 St. John the Baptist Chapel 2.9. 2 St. Nicholas ' Chapel 2.9. 2.1 Northumberland Vault 2.9. 3 St Paul 's Chapel 2.9. 4 Other Ambulatory Chapels 2.10 Henry VII 's Lady Chapel 3 Memorials 3.1 Individuals 3.2 World War I Poets 3.3 20th Century Martyrs 4 Formerly buried ( removed ) 5 Notes History Grave effigy of Queen Elizabeth I Henry III rebuilt Westminster Abbey in honour of the Royal Saint Edward the Confessor whose relics were placed in a shrine in the sanctuary and now lie in a burial vault beneath the 1268 Cosmati mosaic pavement, in front of the High Altar. Henry III himself was interred nearby in a superb chest tomb with effigial monument. Many of the Plantagenet kings of England, their wives and other relatives, were also buried in the Abbey. From the time of Edward the Confessor until the death of George II in 1760, most Kings and Queens of England were buried here, although there are exceptions ( most notably Edward IV, Henry VIII and Charles I who are buried in St George 's Chapel in Windsor Castle ). All monarchs who died after George II were buried in Windsor ; most were laid to rest in St George 's Chapel, although Queen Victoria and Edward VIII are buried at Frogmore, where the Royal Family also has a private cemetery. Since the Middle Ages, aristocrats were buried inside chapels, while monks and other 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 King 's Works. Other poets, writers and musicians were buried or memorialised around Chaucer in what became known as Poets ' Corner. These include : W.H. Auden, William Blake, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, Thomas Gray, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Samuel Johnson, John Keats, Rudyard Kipling, Jenny Lind, John Masefield, John Milton, Laurence Olivier, Alexander Pope, Nicholas Rowe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas Shadwell, William Shakespeare, Alfred Lord Tennyson and William Wordsworth. Abbey musicians such as Henry Purcell were also buried in their place of work. Subsequently, it became one of Britain 's most significant honours to be buried or commemorated here. The practice of burying national figures in the Abbey began under Oliver Cromwell with the burial of Admiral Robert Blake in 1657. The practice spread to include generals, admirals, politicians, doctors and scientists such as Isaac Newton, buried on 4 April 1727 and Charles Darwin buried 19 April 1882. Eight British Prime Ministers are buried in the Abbey ; William Pitt the Elder, William Pitt the Younger, George Canning, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, William Ewart Gladstone, Bonar Law, Neville Chamberlain and Clement Attlee. During the early 20th century, for reasons of space, it became increasingly common to bury cremated remains rather than coffins. In 1905 the actor Sir Henry Irving was cremated and his ashes buried in the Abbey, thereby becoming the first person ever to be cremated prior to interment. This marked a milestone as after the death of Sir Joseph Hooker in December 1911, the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey chose to offer Hooker a grave near Charles Darwin 's in the nave but also insisted that he be cremated before. His widow however declined and so Hooker 's body was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne 's Church, Kew. The majority of interments at the Abbey are of cremated remains, but some burials still take place -- Frances Challen, wife of the Rev Sebastian Charles, Canon of Westminster, was buried alongside her husband in the south choir aisle in 2014. Members of the Percy Family have a family vault, `` The Northumberland Vault '', in St Nicholas 's chapel, within the Abbey. In the floor just inside the great west door, in the centre of the nave, is the tomb of The Unknown Warrior, an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was buried in the Abbey on 11 November 1920. There are many graves in the floors of the Abbey, but this is the only grave on which it is forbidden to walk. Burials See also : Category : Burials at Westminster Abbey Monarchs and their consorts Audio description of the shrine of Edward the Confessor by John Hall The following English, Scottish and British Monarchs and their consorts are buried in the Abbey : Sæberht of Essex St Edward the Confessor and his wife, Edith of Wessex Henry III of England Edward I of England and his wife, Eleanor of Castile Edward III of England and his wife, Philippa of Hainault Richard II of England and his wife, Anne of Bohemia Henry V of England and his wife, Catherine of Valois Edward V of England Anne Neville, wife of Richard III Henry VII of England and his wife, Elizabeth of York Edward VI of England Anne of Cleves, wife of King Henry VIII Mary I of England Elizabeth I of England as shown on her tomb Elizabeth I of England In the 19th century researchers looking for the tomb of James I partially opened the underground vault containing the remains of Elizabeth I and Mary I of England. The lead coffins were stacked, with Elizabeth 's resting on top of her half - sister 's. James VI & I of Scotland England and Ireland and his wife, Anne of Denmark The position of the tomb of James I of England was lost for two and a half centuries. In the 19th century, following an excavation of many of the vaults beneath the floor, the lead coffin was found in the Henry VII vault. Charles II of England and Scotland Mary II of England and Scotland William III of England and II of Scotland Anne, Queen of Great Britain and her husband, Prince George of Denmark George II of Great Britain and his wife, Caroline of Ansbach Other monarchs and consorts Mary, Queen of Scots, mother of James VI & I Elizabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James VI & I Nave The following are buried in the Nave : Alphonso, Earl of Chester ( heart buried in Blackfriars, London ) Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby John André Francis Atterbury Clement Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee Sir Charles Barry Ernest Bevin Andrew Bonar Law Angela Georgina Burdett - Coutts Neville Chamberlain Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald Charles Cornewall Charles Darwin Joost de Blank Freeman Freeman - Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon George Graham Sir John Herschel Ben Jonson ( buried upright ) David Livingstone ( heart buried in Zambia ) Charles Lyell Sir Isaac Newton James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope & family Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford Sir George Gilbert Scott Robert Stephenson Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox George Edmund Street J.J. Thomson William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin Thomas Tompion The Unknown Warrior Beatrice Webb Sidney James Webb, 1st Baron Passfield North Transept The following are buried in the North Transept : Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh George Canning Charles John Canning, 1st Earl Canning William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham Charles James Fox William Ewart Gladstone Henry Grattan Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster William Pitt the Younger Sir John Malcolm William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield Sir Hugh Vaughan William Wilberforce South Transept Poets ' Corner Main article : Poets ' Corner The following are buried in the South Transept which is known as Poets ' Corner : Maj. John André Robert Adam Robert Browning William Camden Thomas Campbell Geoffrey Chaucer William Congreve Abraham Cowley William Davenant John Denham Charles Dickens Michael Drayton John Dryden Adam Fox David Garrick John Gay Gabriel Goodman George Frederick Handel Thomas Hardy ( heart buried in Stinsford ) Sir Henry Irving Dr Samuel Johnson Rudyard Kipling Thomas Macaulay John Masefield Anne Oldfield Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier Thomas Parr Richard Brinsley Sheridan Edmund Spenser Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson Cloisters The cloister and garth The following are buried in the Cloisters : Edmund Ayrton Aphra Behn Gen. John Burgoyne Muzio Clementi Benjamin Cooke Robert Cooke Percy Dearmer Lord Fraser of Lonsdale Howard Nixon John Parsons Johann Peter Salomon William Shield Herbert Thorndike John Thorndike William Turner James Wright North choir Aisle The following are buried in the North Choir Aisle : John Blow Henry Purcell John Robinson Ralph Vaughan Williams William Sterndale Bennett South choir Aisle The following are buried in the South Choir Aisle : Andrew Bell James Kendall Sir Paul Methuen Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell Dame Sybil Thorndike Charles Whitworth, 1st Baron Whitworth Ambulatory chapels The following are buried in the Ambulatory Chapels : St. John the Baptist Chapel Sir Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, KG, Lord Burghley ( d. 1623 ) Lady Dorothy Neville Cecil ( d. 1608 ; 1st wife of Sir Thomas Cecil, daughter of John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer ) St Nicholas ' Chapel Northumberland vault List of burials : George Seymour, Viscount Beauchamp ( d. 1745 ; only son of Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset ) Algernon Seymour, 7th Duke of Somerset ( d. 1750 ) Frances Percy, Neé Thynne, Duchess of Somerset, ( d. 1754 ; widow of 7th Duke ) Lady Elizabeth Anne Frances Percy, ( d. 1761 ; daughter of the 1st Duke of Northumberland ) Elizabeth Percy, Neé Seymour, Duchess of Northumberland ( d. 1776 ) Lady Elizabeth Percy, ( d. 1779 ; daughter of Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley, at the time styled Lord Algernon Percy ) Lady Charlotte Percy, ( d. 1781 ; daughter of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland, at the time styled Earl Percy ) Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland, ( d. 1786 ) Lord Henry Percy, ( d. 1794 ; son of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland ) Lady Louisa Margaret Percy, ( d. 1796 ; daughter of Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley ) Lord Algernon James Percy, ( d. 1805 ; son of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, ' at the time styled Lord Lovaine ) Lord Henry Algernon Pitt Percy, ( d. 1809 ; son of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, ' at the time styled Lord Lovaine ) Lady Margaret Percy, ( d. 1810 ; daughter of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, ' at the time styled Lord Lovaine ) Isabella Susanna Percy, Neé Burrell, Countess of Beverley, ( d. 1810 ; Widow of Algernon Percy, 1st Earl of Beverley ) Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland ( d. 1817 ) Lady Elizabeth Percy, ( d. 1820 ; daughter of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland ) Frances Julia Percy, Neé Burrell, Duchess of Northumberland, ( d. 1820 ; 2nd wife of the 2nd Duke of Northumberland ) Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland ( d. 1847 ) Lady Agnes Buller, Neé Percy, ( d. 1856 ; daughter of Hugh Percy, 2nd Duke of Northumberland ; wife of Major General F.T. Buller ) Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland ( d. 1865 ) Charlotte Florentia Percy, Neé Clive, Duchess of Northumberland, ( d. 1866 ) George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland, ( d. 1867 ) General Lord Henry Hugh Manvers Percy VC KCB, ( d. 1877 ) Lady Louisa Percy, ( d. 1883 ; daughter of George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland ) Louisa Percy, Neé Drummond, Duchess of Northumberland, ( d. 1890 ; wife of Algernon George Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland ) Algernon George Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland, ( d. 1899 ) Alan Ian Percy, 8th Duke of Northumberland ( d. 1930 ) Helen Magdalen Percy, Neé Gordon - Lennox, Duchess of Northumberland, ( d. 1965 ) Hugh Algernon Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland, ( d. 1988 ) Elizabeth Diana Percy, Neé Montagu Douglas Scott, Duchess of Northumberland, ( d. 2012 ) Ashes interred St Paul 's Chapel Katherine Percy, Neé Neville, Countess of Northumberland, ( d. 1596 ; daughter of John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer ; wife of Henry Percy, 8th Earl of Northumberland ) Other Ambulatory Chapels Robert Aytoun Eleanor de Bohun Anne of Cleves Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall Sir Rowland Hill Simon Langham Edward Talbot, 8th Earl of Shrewsbury William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke Catherine of Valois George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham Henry VII 's Lady Chapel The following are buried in Henry VII 's Chapel : Antoine Philippe, Duke of Montpensier, brother of French King Louis - Philippe I Joseph Addison ( buried in a vault in North Aisle ; also a white marble statue in Poets ' Corner ) Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox ( buried, with her son Charles, in a tomb in South Aisle ) Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle ( also memorial Henry VII Chapel, South Aisle ) George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax Prince William, Duke of Gloucester ( son of Queen Anne ) Viscount Trenchard Maj. Gen. Charles Worsley ( no memorial remains ) Memorials The following are commemorated in the Abbey and / or had their Memorial Service in the Abbey, but were buried elsewhere : Individuals `` Placing the Canadian Colours on Gen. James Wolfe 's Monument in Westminster Abbey '' by Emily Warren in Currie Hall at Royal Military College of Canada Christopher Anstey, buried at St. Swithin 's Church Bath, Somerset Dame Peggy Ashcroft, cremated at Golders Green Crematorium, London WH Auden, buried in Kirchstetten. Jane Austen, buried in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire Robert, Lord Baden - Powell, buried in Nyeri, Kenya, and his wife Lady Olave Baden - Powell, whose ashes are also buried in Nyeri, Kenya. Stanley Baldwin, cremated at Golders Green Crematorium and ashes buried in Worcester Cathedral, Worcestershire Admiral Robert Blake ( on a stone memorial in the south choir aisle ), initially buried in the Abbey but reburied in St Margaret 's, Westminster in 1661. William Booth, buried at Stoke Newington, London Borough of Hackney Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh, buried at the parish church of Aldeburgh Charlotte Brontë, Emily Jane Brontë, Anne Brontë ; Charlotte and Emily are buried at Haworth, while Anne is buried at Scarborough Lord Byron, buried at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire Sir Winston Churchill, buried at Bladon, Oxfordshire John Clare, buried in St Botolph 's churchyard, Helpston, Cambridgeshire James Cornewall, buried at sea off Toulon. His monument in the Abbey was the first ever to be erected by Parliament at public expense. Edward Cooke, buried in Calcutta Noël Coward, buried on the grounds of his home Firefly Estate in Jamaica William Cowper ( in a stained glass window unveiled by George W. Childs in 1875 ), buried in East Dereham, Norfolk Diana, Princess of Wales, buried at Althorp, Northamptonshire Richard Dimbleby, buried in St Peter 's churchyard, Lynchmere, West Sussex Paul Dirac, buried in Tallahassee, Florida Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, buried at Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire Sir Francis Drake, buried at sea off Portobelo, Panama Sir Edward Elgar, buried in St Wulftan 's RC Church in Little Malvern, Worcestershire Sir John Franklin, presumably buried at sea near King William Island, Canada Adam Lindsay Gordon, buried in Australia George Green, mathematician, buried in his native Nottinghamshire. John Harrison, buried in St John 's Church in Hampstead, North London Philip Larkin, buried in Cottingham municipal cemetery near Hull Rev Evelyn Levett Sutton, prebendary of Westminster and chaplain to the House of Commons who collapsed after reading the ninth commandment during Sunday services and died the next day ( in a monument ) C.S. Lewis, buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Headington, Oxford Jenny Lind, buried at Great Malvern, Worcestershire Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, buried at Cambridge, Massachusetts George Herbert ( in a stained glass window unveiled by George W. Childs in 1875 ) James Ramsay Macdonald, buried at Spynie, near Lossiemouth, Grampian Sir Robert Menzies, cremated in Australia Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, buried in Romsey Abbey. Pasquale Paoli, buried at Morosaglia, Corsica William Shakespeare, buried at Stratford - upon - Avon, Warwickshire Dylan Thomas ( in a plaque unveiled in 1982 ), buried at Laugharne Thomas Totty, buried at Portsmouth Garrison Chapel, Portsmouth, Hampshire William Villettes, buried in Jamaica. Charles Wesley, buried at Old Marylebone, London John Wesley, buried at City Road Chapel, London Oscar Wilde ( in a stained glass window unveiled in 1995 ), buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris Gen. James Wolfe, buried at St Alfege Church, Greenwich, South - East London Sir Adrian Boult, his body was willed to science World War I Poets Sixteen Great War poets are commemorated on a slate stone unveiled 11 November 1985, in the South Transept ( Poets ' Corner ) : Richard Aldington, buried in France Laurence Binyon, author of For the Fallen, buried in Reading, Berkshire Edmund Blunden, buried in Long Melford, Suffolk Rupert Brooke, author of The Soldier, buried in Skyros, Greece Wilfrid Gibson Robert Graves, author of I, Claudius and the only poet of the sixteen still living at the time of the commemoration, buried in Deià, Majorca, Spain Julian Grenfell, buried in Boulogne - sur - Mer, France Ivor Gurney, buried in Twigworth, Gloucestershire David Jones, buried in Crofton Park, Lewisham Robert Nichols Wilfred Owen, author of Dulce et Decorum Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth, buried in Ors, France Herbert Read, buried in Stonegrave, North Yorkshire Isaac Rosenberg, buried in Pas de Calais, France Siegfried Sassoon, buried in Mells, Somerset Charles Sorley, also commemorated at the Loos Memorial Edward Thomas, buried in Agny Military Cemetery, France 20th century martyrs The 20th - century martyrs Above the Great West Door, ten 20th - century Christian martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues ; from left to right : St Maximilian Kolbe ( d. 1941 ) Manche Masemola ( d. 1928 ) Janani Luwum ( d. 1977 ) Grand Duchess St Elizabeth of Russia ( d. 1918 ) Martin Luther King, Jr ( d. 1968 ) Óscar Romero ( d. 1980 ) Dietrich Bonhoeffer ( d. 1945 ) Esther John ( d. 1960 ) Lucian Tapiedi ( d. 1942 ) Wang Zhiming ( d. 1973 ) Formerly buried ( removed ) King Harold I was originally buried in the Abbey, but his body was subsequently exhumed, beheaded, and thrown into a fen in June 1040. The body was later rescued and re-buried in the church of St Clement Danes in Westminster. A number of Cromwellians were also buried in the Abbey but later removed, in 1661, on the orders of King Charles II, and buried in a pit in St Margaret 's churchyard, adjoining the Abbey. A modern plaque on the exterior wall of the church records the names of those who were disinterred : Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector Admiral Robert Blake John Pym In November 1869, at the request of the Dean of Westminster and with the approval of Queen Victoria, the philanthropist George Peabody was given a temporary burial in the Abbey, but later moved and buried in Salem, Massachusetts. Notes Jump up ^ Dunton, Larkin ( 1896 ). The World and Its People. Silver, Burdett. p. 26. Jump up ^ Westminster Abbey Mrs. A. Murray Smith, published 1904 - 08 - 30 Jump up ^ `` Woking Crematorium ''. Internet. The Cremation Society of Great Britain. Retrieved 28 November 2010. Jump up ^ `` Sebastian Charles ''. Internet. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster. Retrieved 19 September 2015. ^ Jump up to : Elizabeth, Duchess of Northumberland -- Westminster Abbey Jump up ^ `` The Tomb of The Unknown Warrior ''. British Legion. Retrieved 29 August 2016. ^ Jump up to : Stanley, Arthur ( 1886 ). Westminster Abbey. London : John Murray. p. 499. Jump up ^ Squire, William Barclay ( 1885 ). `` Ayrton, Edmund ''. In Stephen, Leslie. Dictionary of National Biography. 02. London : Smith, Elder & Co. He was buried in the west cloisters of Westminster Abbey on 28 May. Jump up ^ Cook, James F. ( 2004 ). Governors of Georgia : 1754 -- 2004. Macon : Mercer University Press. ISBN 978 - 0 - 86554 - 954 - 8. Jump up ^ `` Charles Whitworth, Baron of Galway ''. Westminster Abbey -- Charles Whitworth, Baron of Galway. Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 18 September 2014. Jump up ^ Robert & Olave Baden - Powell -- Westminster Abbey Jump up ^ Coutu, Joan ( 2006 ). Persuasion and propaganda monuments and the eighteenth - century British Empire. Montréal : McGill - Queen 's University Press. p. 160. ISBN 9780773576643. Jump up ^ http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/menzies/after-office.aspx%7C NAA - Former Prime Ministers Of Australia, Menzies after office - Retrieved 2016 - 02 - 06 Jump up ^ Villettes, William Ann, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Robert Holden and Desmond Gregory, ( subscription required ), Retrieved 9 September 2017 Jump up ^ `` Poets ''. Net.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 15 November 2012. Jump up ^ Robert Blake -- Westminster Abbey, Westminster Abbey Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burials_and_memorials_in_Westminster_Abbey&oldid=821050127 '' Categories : Religion in the City of Westminster Westminster Abbey Burials at Westminster Abbey World Heritage Sites in London Monuments and memorials in London Hidden categories : Articles incorporating Cite DNB template Pages using div col without cols and colwidth parameters Talk Contents About Wikipedia Español Edit links This page was last edited on 18 January 2018, at 03 : 34. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who was the first person buried in westminster abbey
Answer: Admiral Robert Blake