Another Famous Grave with a Burma Link

As I noted Scott of the Shans Sussex grave yesterday, time to slot in another famous man with a Burma connection who also got a visit from me recently – George Orwell, who’s buried at All Saints church in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. Funnily enough after Sussex I happened to be passing through Oxfordshire recently too so stopped in to see Orwell’s grave (never say I’m not a fun day out!).

Orwell (1903-1950), buried under his real name of Eric Arthur Blair,  was a colonial policeman in Burma of course between 1922 and 1927 – giving us later Burmese Days (1934) as well as his essays A Hanging (1931) and Shooting an Elephant (1936). Apparently Orwell (an atheist) had a fear of cremation and a friend managed to get him into the church at Sutton Courtenay. Unlike Scott of the Shans in Graffham, Orwell is remembered and a sign directing you to the unpretentious grave is provided by the church. Along with plenty of other Sutton Courtenayites he shares the graveyard with HH Asquith, Liberal Prime Minister 1908-1916, so I’ve stuck his slightly more solid grave in below too.

Note that Eric Blair’s rather better known pen name is absent from the grave.