Neil Sinclair looks at the burial place of William Shakespeare’s brother. Find out more on our day of Shakespeare walks on April 23rd – part of out River Walks Festival

picture copyright Neil Sinclair 2015

If only William Shakespeare’s brother Edmond had been buried under a car park like King Richard III; or the German mercenary soldier at Waterloo; we might by now have found his remains. But the Bard’s younger brother, the only one of William Shakespeare’s family to enter the acting profession, lies at an unknown location somewhere in or near Southwark Cathedral.Edmond’s burial at what was then St Saviour’s parish church, is marked by a ledger stone in the choir area. But, unless by an amazing coincidence, Edmond’s remains don’t lie beneath this stone.  No-one alive knows exactly where Edmond’s bones are buried, although it’s a fair bet that his brother secured him a prominent resting place. Edmond’s ledger stone is next to stone slabs commemorating Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. However, their remains are also thought unlikely to be beneath them.
 See these ledger stones, hear the bizarre story of Fletcher’s premature death and admire the magnificent memorials to William Shakespeare in Southwark Cathedral on 23rd April, the  Bard’s birthday anniversary.

copyright Neil Sinclair

Join Southwark Cathedral and South Bank guide Neil Sinclair on his Shakespeare on Bankside special walk. Part of a whole day’s Shakespeare in London programme and one of 40 walks available as part of the Footprints of London River Walks Festival, The Bard on Bankside is essential entertainment for all lovers of literature, Tudor and Jacobean theatre and, of course, riverside pleasure.