Who was the English poet that died fighting against Turks on the side of the Greeks?

Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which many Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died in 1824 at the young age of 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi. Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the English Romantics, Byron was both celebrated and castigated in life for his aristocratic excesses, including huge debts and numerous love affairs.

With his death, Byron's body was embalmed, but the Greeks wanted some part of their hero to stay with them. According to some sources, his heart remained at Missolonghi. His other remains were sent to England for burial in Westminster Abbey, but the Abbey refused for reason of "questionable morality".

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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15 Comments

Jas Newman

Acer Wolfe, Your prejudice is showing. Westminster Abbey hasn't been under the Catholic Church since Tudor times.

Peter de Loriol

I got it! But he died swimming the Hellespont! He was my great great grandfather's cousin - they were both at school (Academy) together. He also wrote a poem to my other great great grandfather, which I still have.

Kitty White

I just looked it up in case any one else is interested. He was buried at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Hucknall, Ashfield District, Nottinghamshire, England.

Bob Watt

He was half-Scottish: his mother was descended from the Stuart kings. Byron said "I was born half a Scot but raised a whole one". With his Mother, having been abandoned by his father, who was an out-and-out rogue, fleeing debt collectors, he went to Aberdeen, where he lived until called up as Lord Byron at about 9 years of age..