Historic reburial of the remains of Captain Matthew Flinders RN.

Thanks to monetary support from a benefactor, the Mayor, Diana Mislov, and Deputy Mayor, Jack Ritchie, are headed for Donington, Lincolnshire, UK in order to attend and represent our city at this coming weekend of celebrations surrounding the internment of Matthew Flinders’ bones in Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood. A grand naval ceremony with hundreds of guests from around the world is planned for the reburial.  Flinders’ bones were discovered during work on HS2 in 2019. Following a local campaign, Flinders is now ‘coming home’ to Donington, where he was born. Preparations for his reburial were delayed by the Covid pandemic in 2020 but are now far more impressive than initially planned, organisers have said.

Jane Pearson, who started the Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home campaign group, said: ‘We have a very, very grand sending off for Captain Flinders’. There will be three days of commemorations marking the history and life of the celebrated figure on 12, 13 and 14 July. As a naval captain, he will receive an 18-gun salute and will have six pallbearers from the Royal Navy’s state ceremonial team carrying his coffin. There will be other representatives from Australia, and from Mauritius, where the captain was arrested by the French during the Napoleonic war.

Whilst in Donington, and during the celebrations, the Mayor will unveil and present a maquette of Matthew Flinders to the church on behalf of the Axel Stenross Maritime Museum.

417169_01 Picture: MITCHELL PATERSON