Matthew Flinders
Bring Him Home

Captain Matthew Flinders RN, Son of Donington, Lincolnshire

BRING HIM HOME

Matthew Flinders was a great seafaring explorer, charting much of Australia’s coastline despite a series of trials and wild adventures. An outstanding sailor, surveyor, navigator and scientist, he was a considerate and self-sacrificing leader who looked after all under his command.

Once Matthew's remains were discovered, the MFBHH group was set up to ensure that he would be reburied in Donington, Lincolnshire, England - his birth place and home.

This is Donington's chance to come together to bring Flinders home! Join us as we celebrate his life and prepare for his reburial with a fabulous village weekend event, special guests and great interest from across the the other side of the world in Australia.

The date has been confirmed ! Saturday 13th July 2024.

We are anticipating that the Service on Saturday 13th July will be highly popular, attendance will need to be by invitation. However, as it is still so far away, we are not progressing any attendance lists until 2024 - we thank everyone for their interest, enthusiasm and patience until that time

he's home!

In order to be as fair as possible for requests to be seated in the church on the reburial of Matthew Flinders on 13th July 2024, we are opening up a ballot, the results of which will be announced next Spring.
Paper versions are available in Donington - they may be collected and returned at Amy's Café, Donington Library and Belle Crafts.
Please also use this form for offers of help in preparation for the big day!

You've already responded.

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Open Public Meeting (NOW FINISHED - thankyou for all those who attended!)

06/10/2023

A public meeting will share the plans in place to welcome home Donington’s most famous son

Tim Purcell’s film, Flinders – Unchartered Waters

17/09/2023

Proposals for a dramatic feature film about the famous explorer and a campaign to make him a posthumous Fellow of the Royal Society are in the pipeline.

We have a date !

06/08/2023

The remains of a Lincolnshire explorer credited with naming Australia will be reburied in his home village in 2024. Saturday 13th July 2024 is the date set aside for the reburial, with a weekend from 12th to the 14th of activities to mark the special occasion.

Funding boost !

03/08/2023

Donington’s Bring Matthew Flinders home campaign wins £35,000 from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Work begins !

20/07/2023

Plans are now in preparation for the reinterment which is to be in the North Aisle of the Church - adjacent to the Flinders Stained Glass Window. The preparation work has already started following Church permissions. This involves an archaeological survey of this part of the church and to be present during the dig. The design and creation of an appropriate Ledger Stone for on top of the grave to provide an appropriate and permanent tribute to this great man is already underway, with the stone coming from Ireland to match other ledgers in the church.

He's coming home!

17/10/2019

Its been confirmed that Flinders' remains will be reinterred at St Mary and the Holy Rood Church in Donington. This has been agreed by Lincoln Cathedral and the Faculties. We are excited to plan for his return, with your help, and make the long weekend event in 2024 something Donington can be proud of. Watch this space for more details!

The Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Group was established early in 2019 with the aim of influencing the return of Matthew Flinders' mortal remains to Donington for their final reinterrment.

The Group is made up of local people from the Parochial Church Council; the Parish Council and others. The Group is also supportive of the Flinders display material in the Church and would like to raise funds to ensure the materials on display are continually updated.

Inevitably due to the worldwide Corona Virus pandemic all plans for Matthew's return to Donington, which we had hoped would be in July 2020, were put on hold. It is still hoped to have multiple services to enable the maximum possible opportunities for the many people wanting to join us to be involved.

Watch this space for further updates of the much anticipated event, we expect that there will be a number of visitors joining us too including from Australia and New Zealand - and we are excited to welcome them to Donington.

The Group also has a very active Facebook Page, please click to learn more! - MFBHH

Donington residents urged to do their bit to help make Matthew Flinders homecoming memorable

31/10/2023

Residents are being urged to rally around and do their bit to ensure the final homecoming of one of South Holland’s most famous sons is a memorable occasion the village can be proud of.

Donington hero Matthew Flinders’ breastplate from his original coffin will go on display in Australia

30/10/2023

The remains of explorer Matthew Flinders will be laid to rest in a replica of his original coffin, members of the community were told last week.

MP Sir John Hayes calls for Matthew Flinders to be made fellow of Royal Society

29/10/2023

South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes calls for Donington-born Matthew Flinders, the first to circumnavigate Australia, to be made fellow of Royal Society.

The Times - Sailor who charted Australia to be reburied in Lincolnshire

30/09/2023

The long journey of Matthew Flinders — the first man to circumnavigate Australia — is coming to an end.

Calendar News September 2023

28/09/2023

Matthew Flinders: Explorer who 'named' Australia to be reburied in Lincolnshire.

Preparations underway - Spalding Today

13/08/2023

Preparations are made within Donington’s St Mary and the Holy Rood Church for the return of explorer Matthew Flinders.

Flinders remains to be reburied - Boston Standard

09/08/2023

An eighteenth century British explorer is set to make his final voyage when his remains are brought back to his home county of Lincolnshire.

BBC Radio 4 Great Lives, Matthew Flinders

31/07/2023

Businessman Stuart Rose discusses the life of cartographer Matthew Flinders, who mapped Australia 200 years ago, with Matthew Parris. From May 2010.

When Matthew died in 1814, he was still living in London working with the Publishers of his great works A Voyage to Terra Australis. So his remains were buried in London. The location of Flinders' grave in St. James's Garden, a former burial ground, was unknown by the mid-19th century.

From 1789 to 1853, the site was used as an overflow cemetery for St. James’ Church, in Piccadilly. Later alterations to the churchyard obliterated his grave.
Back in 1852, Flinders’ sister-in-law, Isabella Tyler, visited the St. James’ cemetery and reported that his grave was gone. In a letter written years later, Flinders’ daughter reported that her aunt “found the churchyard remodeled, and quantities of tombstones and graves with their contents had been carted away as rubbish, among them that of my unfortunate father, thus pursued by disaster after death as in life.”

Research shows Flinders’ remains were almost certainly moved to an unmarked grave (or possibly just dumped) just a little to the east of their original spot, as part of the modern Euston station.

It was finally rediscovered 200 years later in January 2019 when his remains were unearthed during an archaeological excavation preceding a major new railway development.
Archaeologists working with High-Speed 2, a planned railway linking London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, planned to exhume up to 61,000 bodies from the former burial ground located next to Euston Station in north London. Flinders, was believed to be buried somewhere near the station.
A lead plate bearing his name clearly identified his resting place, much to the excitement of Donington and Australia! The race to bring him home was on...

As soon as this find was publicised, people from Donington began the campaign to have him brought back to Donington as his final resting place.

The Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Group was established with this sole aim. The Group worked with Matthew's direct descendants, the Church Authorities at Lincoln, Sir John Hayes MP, who raised the issue in the House of Commons, and gained much support.

The campaign was successful and on 17th October 2019 the decision was announced that Matthew's mortal remains would return to Donington for reburial.

Plans are now in preparation for the reinterment which is to be in the North Aisle of the Church, adjacent to the Flinders Stained Glass Window.

The preparation work will involve an archaeological survey of this part of the church; church permissions / Faculties; the design and creation of an appropriate Ledger Stone for on top of the grave to provide an appropriate and permanent tribute to this great man.

Fund raising for all of this has started, please see the Make A Donation section to support these works and to ensure Matthew has a permanent and fitting memorial!

St Mary and Holy Rood Church, Donington

Flinders was born on 16 March 1774, the oldest of seven children, in the market town of Donington, Lincolnshire, England, the son of Matthew Flinders, a surgeon - apothecary, and his wife Susannah, (née Ward). His home, pictured, is no longer there although a similar building has been built on the site, bearing a plaque to commemorate his birth place.

He was educated at Donington Free School, founded by Thomas Cowley in 1718 for preparatory education and at aged 12 moved as a boarder to Horbling Grammar School under the direction of Rev. John Shinglar. There he was introduced to the Classics and Mathematics, the grounding for navigation, which he acknowledged later in life. His father expected his son to follow the family tradition of becoming a doctor, however from an early age, Flinders had been enthralled with Daniel Defoe's tale of Robinson Crusoe and dreamed of distant lands waiting to be discovered. He later wrote:
“I burned to have adventures of my own. I felt as I read that there was born within my heart the ambition to distinguish myself by some important discovery.”

He was largely self-taught, having studied Greek classics, navigation techniques, and Captain Cook's voyages of discovery.
A cousin, who was the governess for the family of Captain Thomas Pasley (1734-1808), a highly regarded British Royal Navy officer, had mentioned Matthew's ambition to go to sea. On meeting Flinders, Pasley was highly impressed by the young man's wealth of knowledge.

Once Flinders had enlisted in the Royal Navy, Pasley secured him a place aboard the HMS Alert - this would be the start of an illustrious naval career.

Flinders enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1789 at the age of 15, and Pasley secured for him the position of a lieutenant's servant aboard HMS Alert.
Flinders also served as a crew member under Pasley's command on HMS Scipio and learn the practical skills of being a sailor before becoming midshipman on the famous 74-gun fighting ship HMS Bellerophon in 1790, serving under William Bligh on a voyage to Tahiti in 1791.
Flinders fought against the French in the naval battle of the Glorious First of June 1794.

In 1795 Flinders sailed to Australia in H.M.S. Reliance in which George Bass was surgeon. There, he carried out vital coastal survey work. He made two hazardous trips with Bass in small open boats, exploring Botany Bay and George's River on the first, and then, after a brief visit to Norfolk Island, going farther south to Lake Illawarra. He rejoined the Reliance for a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope to bring back livestock.

In 1798 Flinders, now lieutenant, joined the schooner Francis on a visit to the Furneaux Islands and carried out useful hydrographic work. A second visit to Norfolk Island followed, after which, in company with George Bass, he circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land in the sloop Norfolk from 7 October 1798 to 12 January 1799, and thus proved it to be an island.

In March 1800 he sailed for England in the Reliance, where reports of his outstanding ability had preceded him. While in England in 1801 he published his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait and its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales, but he was chiefly concerned with preparation for an expedition whose results were to place him among the foremost navigators of all time.

Flinders was promoted to commander in February 1801, and was selected to command H.M.S. Investigator, a vessel over 334 tons. The Admiralty gave him the the task to explore, in detail, among other places, that part of the south Australian coastline, then referred to as 'the Unknown Coast'.

In April 1801 he had married Ann Chappelle of Lincolnshire hoping to take her with him on his voyage. However, the Admiralty refused to permit it and therefore it would they would be 9 years before they would be reunited.

He reached Cape Leeuwin, southern Western Australia, late in 1801 after a passage which demonstrated his ability as a navigator and his attention to the welfare and health of his crew. Flinders set about mapping Australia’s ‘Unknown Coast’.

His precise, detailed maps are the result of his methodical practice of personally taking all bearings and returning each day to where the previous day’s work had ended.

The Investigator was resupplied and refitted in Sydney in May 1802, before Flinders began his circumnavigation of the continent, accompanied by an Aboriginal translator, Bungaree.

But the vessel was leaking badly as it reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. Flinders abandoned the charting work, but continued the circumnavigation to Sydney, limping back into port in June 1803.

Flinders hoped to return to England on the HMS Porpoise to procure another vessel to finish his surveying work, but the Porpoise struck Wreck Reefs, part of the Great Barrier Reef, and sank approximately 700 miles (1,100 km) north of Sydney.

Flinders expertly sailed her cutter 1130 kilometres back to Sydney, then arranged for the rescue of his wrecked shipmates, and subsequently sailed for England in another leaky boat, the 29 ton HMS Cumberland.

However, the poor condition of this vessel forced him to put in at French-controlled Isle de France (now known as Mauritius) for repairs on 17 December 1803. By this time war between Great Britain and France had broken out again, but Flinders hoped that his French passport (despite its being issued for the Investigator and not the Cumberland) and the scientific nature of his mission would allow him to continue on his way.

General Decaen, governor of Mauritius, was a faithful and honest servant of Emperor Napoleon, but his attitude to Flinders was overbearing, despite the obvious cause of his enforced arrival. Decaen suspected that Flinders was a spy. Flinders also managed to insult Decaen by not taking off his hat in his presence or accepting a dinner invitation from his wife. Flinders was arrested as a spy and incarcerated for 6 years on the island, although for much of that time he was afforded freedom of the island.

Decaen referred the matter to the French government but this took time due to the general confusion of the war. Eventually, on 11 March 1806, Napoleon gave his approval for his release, however Decaen still refused to allow Flinders to leave. By this stage he believed Flinders' knowledge of the island's defences would have encouraged Britain to attempt to capture it.

Nevertheless, in June 1809 the Royal Navy began a blockade of the island, and in June 1810 Flinders was freed. Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope on Olympia, which was taking despatches back to Britain, he received a promotion to post-Captain, before continuing to England in May 1810, albeit now in deteriorating poor health.

Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810. He was in poor health but immediately resumed work preparing "A Voyage to Terra Australis" and his atlas of maps for publication.

The lengthy full title of this book, which was first published in London in July 1814, was given, as was common at the time, a synoptic description:

"A Voyage to Terra Australis: undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island ".

Today, original copies of the Atlas to Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis are held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, four plates of views and ten plates of Australian flora.

Flinders' map of Terra Australis or Australia (the two parts of the double name of his 1804 manuscript reversed) was first published in January 1814 and the remaining maps were published before his atlas and book.

Flinders had wanted to refer to 'Australia' in the title, and although initially it was advised against it, the British Admiralty agreed in 1824 that the continent should be officially called Australia.

Flinders died, aged 40, on 19 July 1814 from kidney disease, at his London home at 14 London Street, later renamed Maple Street and now the site of the BT Tower. This was on the day after the book and atlas was published; Flinders never saw the completed work (as he was unconscious by that time), but his wife arranged the volumes on his bed covers so that he could touch them.

Flinders is remembered not only for his achievements but also for great improvements in the science of navigation, for his research on the action of the tides, and the affinity between the height of the barometer and the direction of the wind.

He is also noted and for his investigations into the deviation of the compass through the presence of iron in ships, a small iron rod placed near a ship’s compass is named Flinders bar, as he found it counteracted the vertical magnetism of a vessel.

In failing health he prepared his monumental work A Voyage to Terra Australis; an enlightening and fascinating story of brilliant navigation and discovery, achievement and tragedy, self-sacrifice and devotion. He paid noble tribute to his comrades suddenly swept away off the Unknown Coast; expresses spontaneous gratitude to the people of Mauritius who befriended him in the hour of need, and expressed sympathy and some understanding towards the Aboriginal people he encountered.

His moral character and devotion to duty were based on high ideals. His considerate and just treatment of the men who served with him won their confidence and respect. In his brief but brilliant career he surmounted difficulties and adversity, and his voyage in the Investigator endures as an imperishable monument to his undaunted spirit and outstanding ability.

Flinders was a humble explorer, naming nothing after himself, but in Australia today, Matthew Flinders' contribution to Australian history is recognised widely.
Many landmarks and streets are named after him, such as Flinders Bay, Flinders Ranges in South Australia, Flinders Street railway station in Melbourne, Flinders Chase National Park, and Flinders University to name but a few.

Memorials to his work are plenty in Australia – there are statues of him in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Donington in Lincolnshire, England, the birthplace of Flinders has a statue of him on the main street accompanied by his faithful friend, Trim. In addition, a large bronze statue of Matthew and Trim stands at Euston Railway Station in London, near where he was originally buried. A cast of the same statue is in Port Lincoln, South Australia, and another cast of the same statue is also at the Flinders University Campus in Adelaide. A smaller version is on display in Lincoln Cathedral in Lincolnshire.

Ann Chappelle was born on 21st November 1770 in Hull, the daughter of a captain in the Merchant Navy who had died early of illness at sea off Java. Her mother remarried to a Rev William Tyler and had another daughter, Isabella, with whom Ann lived and remained very close for the rest of her life.

Ann was described by eugenicist Sir Francis Galton as 'with above average mental powers, considered clever, with a sweet and perfect temper, beloved by all who knew her, witty, generous, nervous, with aptitude for poetry, literature, singing, verse, and painting flowers from nature'.

Ann and Matthew married on 17th April 1801 in Partney in Lincolnshire - and it was the intention for Ann to travel with him on his voyages - however that was vetoed by the Lords of the Admiralty.
This is well documented in correspondence between Flinders and his chief benefactor, Sir Joseph Banks, in May 1801
I have but time to tell you that the news of your marriage, which was published in the Lincoln paper, has reached me. The Lords of the Admiralty have heard also that Mrs. Flinders is on board the Investigator, and that you have some thought of carrying her to sea with you. This I was very sorry to hear, and if that is the case I beg to give you my advice by no means to adventure to measures so contrary to the regulations and the discipline of the Navy; for I am convinced by language I have heard, that their Lordships will, if they hear of her being in New South Wales, immediately order you to be superseded, whatever may be the consequences, and in all likelihood order Mr. Grant to finish the survey.
As a result, Ann was obliged to stay in England and after just 3 months of marriage would not see her husband for nine years.

Matthew named Mount Chappell/Chappelle in Bass Strait after Ann.

Ann and Matthew had one daughter - Anne, born in 1812 who later married William Petrie, a civil engineer. Their only child and son Sir William Flinders Petrie ( 1853 - 1942 ) went on to become a renowned Egyptologist who is buried in Jerusalem. There is also some irony that the archaeological skills used to find and identify his body will owe much to the methodology established by Flinders’ famous grandson, the archaeologist

It is believed that through illness Ann became blind in one eye, nevertheless she was a watercolourist with an aptitude for painting flowers - some of her work is in the Usher Gallery at Lincoln.

Ann outlived Matthew by almost forty years, living at various addresses in London with her half-sister Isabella. Her headstone can be seen in the Churchyard of St Thomas, Charlton, London.
Inscription on the Headstone reads -

"Sacred to the memory of Ann, Widow of Capt. Matthew Flinders RN The Circumnavigator of Australia and Discoverer. She died 10 February 1852. Let me die the death of the righteous And let my last end be like hers. Also of Isabella Tyler Half Sister of the above and daughter of the late Revd Wm Tyler of Ashby Lincoln Who died on 18th December 1867"

Images are: - Of Matthew and Ann; and Daughter Anne in the Blue Dress - by kind permission of Lisette Flinders
and the gravestone at Charlton

Friends of St Thomas Church in Charlton started a project which was inspired by Ann Flinders' grave.

The area was very over grown and during the excavation of Mathew Finders at Euston station they had visitors come to see her grave. It was so overgrown they decided to create a garden in her memory, a Garden of Reflection.

What an incredible effort, as can be seen from the before and after pictures, kindly supplied by the church.

Click here to link to St Thomas Church, Charlton LONDON for more information on the restoration of The Garden of Reflection.

Trim was born in 1799 aboard the ship, black with white paws, chin and chest. Trim would not have been the only cat on board Investigator; most ships kept a few cats onboard to catch rats and mice that could cause havoc by eating supplies or gnawing on ropes.

But Trim's personality appears to have been bigger than the other ship cats. Flinders wrote, in A Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim.

'The signs of superior intelligence which marked his infancy procured for him an education beyond what is usually bestowed upon the individuals of his tribe,'
'And being brought up amongst sailors, his manners acquired a peculiarity of cast which rendered them as different from those of other cats.'

As a kitten, Trim fell more than once into the ocean but paddled back to safety and climbed onto the ship.

'He learned to swim and to have no dread of the water; and when a rope was thrown over to him, he took hold of it like a man, and ran up it like a cat,' wrote Flinders.
'In a short time, he was able to mount up the gangway steps quicker than his master, or even than the first lieutenant.'

Noting his strong survival instinct and intelligence, Flinders and the crew made him their favourite. He was named after the butler Corporal Trim in Laurence Sterne's novel ‘Tristram Shandy’ because Flinders considered him to be a faithful and affectionate friend. Flinders even wrote a biography for his constant cat companion as well as other tributes and poems.

Trim sailed with Flinders on HMS Investigator on his voyage of circumnavigation around the Australian mainland. Trim also managed to survive the shipwreck of HMS Porpoise on the Great Barrier Reef, in 1803, using another of his 9 lives! When they ran aground and the crew, including Trim, had to swim to safety on a small island.
Trim was said to have helped keep the stranded men's spirits up while they waited seven weeks for rescue.

When Flinders was accused of spying and imprisoned under house arrest by the French in Mauritius on his return voyage, a faithful Trim shared his captivity. During his imprisonment, Flinders wrote a biographical tribute to Trim in which he described him as "one of the finest animals I ever saw... [his] robe was a clear jet black, with the exception of his four feet, which seemed to have been dipped in snow and his under lip, which rivalled them in whiteness. He had also a white star on his breast."

Trim stayed with Flinders the whole time — but he was allowed to wander the island.
During one of his outdoor explorations in 1804, the cat failed to return, much to the distress of Flinders.
Although never proven, a heartbroken Flinders attributed his disappearance to his having been stolen and eaten by a hungry slave. Flinders wrote about the demise of his friend:

"Thus perished my faithful intelligent Trim! The sporting, affectionate and useful companion of my voyages during four years.
"Never, my Trim, 'to take thee all in all, shall I see thy like again', but never wilt thou cease to be regretted by all who had the pleasure of knowing thee.
"And for thy affectionate master and friend, he promises thee, if ever he shall have the happiness to enjoy repose in his native country, under a thatched cottage surrounded by half an acre of land, to erect in the most retired corner a monument to perpetuate thy memory and record thy uncommon merits."

Flinders never got a chance to erect a monument to Trim, but a number of statues now stand as memorials to the adventurous cat — in England and in Australia — and his story lives on.

In 1996, a bronze statue of Trim by sculptor John Cornwell was erected on a window ledge of the Mitchell library in Sydney directly behind a statue of his owner that was erected following the donation of Flinders' personal papers to the library by his grandson in 1925.

The popularity of the statue has since led to the development of a range of Trim merchandise by the library and even its cafe is named after the cat.

The plaque under it says:

TO THE MEMORY OF
TRIM
The best and most illustrious of his race
The most affectionate of friends,
faithful of servants,
and best of creatures
He made the tour of the globe, and a voyage to Australia,
which he circumnavigated, and was ever the
delight and pleasure of his fellow voyagers
Written by Matthew Flinders in memory of his cat

Bungaree became the first known Aboriginal person to circumnavigate Australia and contribute to the mapping of the Australian coastline.

A short man with a sharp intellect, Bungaree arrived in Sydney in the 1790s with the remains of the Kuring-Gai , after conflicts with white settlers had escalated along the Hawkesbury River. He quickly made a mark in the fledgling colony, as by 1798 he was employed on a 60-day round trip to Norfolk Island on the HMS Reliance, where he met the young English naval lieutenant Matthew Flinders.

Flinders was so impressed with Bungaree’s friendly demeanour, intuition and bravery that the following year he took him on a coastal survey voyage to Bribie Island and Hervey Bay on the 25-tonne longboat Norfolk.

Bungaree was a brilliant diplomat and despite language barriers could quickly ascertain the wishes of the coastal Aboriginal groups they encountered. Flinders therefore used him again on his most exploratory voyage, the circumnavigation of Australia in the HMS Investigator, from 1802 to 1803. It was on this expedition that much of Australia’s unknown coastline was mapped.

Back in Sydney, Bungaree established a reputation as a brilliant mimic, imitating the walk and mannerisms of various governors and personalities. He was given fine clothing, including military cloaks and a hat. Governor Macquarie took a particular liking to Bungaree, and gave him both the fictitious title ‘King of the Broken Bay Aborigines’ and the first Aboriginal land grant, on Georges Head, where he briefly grew peaches and other produce.

In 1817, Bungaree sailed to north-western Australia with Phillip Parker King in the 76-tonne cutter HMS Mermaid, again showing his skill as a diplomat and intermediary between white and black people.

He died in Sydney in 1830 and was buried at Rose Bay.

Matthew Flinders: The Man behind the Map

£20.00

Trim, The Cartographer's Cat

£15.00

Flinders books

Flinders at the Church

Flinders Collection

This poem by Elizabeth Adams is reproduced with permission from the October 2023 issue of Cook’s Log, the journal of the Captain Cook Society (www.captaincooksociety.com)

Captain Flinders Goes Home

If Dampier had lived in time to meet Cook,[1]

Would they have realised they both had stood

At opposite ends of the same landmass?

I like to think so, but doubt that they would.

For it wasn't until twenty years after Cook

That Captain Flinders sailed all the way

Round the vast, seemingly endless coast

And gave it the name we use to this day.

Most 'Brits' never took much notice of Flinders

Until, when digging for the country's new train,

His coffin was found in old burial ground

Where for two hundred years he had quietly lain.

He refused to live a life mediocre,

And now that for his body we no longer search,

He need fear no more to "rest .... unnoticed",

For he'll be taken back to his Lincolnshire church.

Reference [1] William Dampier was the first recorded Englishman to set foot on Australia, some 80 years before Cook.

MFBHH

St Thomas Church, Charlton LONDON
Bass and Flinders Maritime Centre

Dr Gillian Dooley, author and further reading from this fabulous writer, HERE

Flinders University

Australia Museum

Wikipedia Flinders

7News Adelaide

HS2 Flinders find

National Maritime Museum London

St Johns College Cambridge

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Matthew FlindersBring Him Home