Who was the first person to be buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey 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. 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 in the abbey. 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,
Burials and memorials in Westminster Abbey their Memorial Service in the Abbey, but were buried elsewhere: Sixteen Great War poets are commemorated on a slate stone unveiled 11 November 1985, in the South Transept (Poets' Corner): Above the Great West Door, ten 20th-century Christian martyrs from across the world are depicted in statues; from left to right: King Harold I was originally buried in the Abbey, but his body was 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