MOVE TO RETURN REMAINS OF ADMIRAL ARTHUR PHILLIP TO AUSTRALIA FOR STATE FUNERAL

Charles Miranda From: News Limited Network May 18, 2013

Francis Wheatley's 1786 portrait of Arthur Philip. Picture: National Potrait Gallery, London. Source: Supplied

IN the past three months they've found the bones of King Richard III and unearthed Alfred the Great, so some in Britain think the mood is right to exhume Australia's founding father and return him for a state funeral.

There's just one problem.
What lies beneath the weathered headstone of Admiral Arthur Phillip, the first governor of the then-British colony of New South Wales and the founder of Sydney, may not be the nation's revered founder and statesman, his remains possibly lost due to a century of indifference. Now, on the eve of the 275th anniversary of Phillip's birth, prominent barrister, academic and amateur super sleuth Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has called on Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr to finish the job and bring the admiral home.
Ten years ago, when he was NSW premier, Carr gave Robertson a secret commission to investigate the whereabouts of Phillip and look at the possibility of exhuming and repatriating his remains to Sydney.

Records showed Phillip's grave, rediscovered in 1897, was below the tiny St Nicholas Church in the village of Bathampton, close to the city of Bath in England's southwest.
But a detailed survey found he was unlikely to be where his marked grave was, a move Robertson said was a travesty for a man who meant so much to Australia.
"They (the British) lost interest in him after his burial in 1814. The coffin was moved and it's not been located," Mr Robertson said.
"I believe he is somewhere under the floorboards, but just not where the arrow is pointing.
"I think it is important to find him and bring him back.
"I'd like him to have a state funeral and be buried at the botanical gardens. There is a monument to him there overlooking the harbour, which he described as the finest in the world, and he can see, so to speak, the country he alone in 1788 believed would amount to something."
Robertson said extensive excavation would be required, but recent digs for old kings and the British government's new mandate to repatriate the remains of other foreign heroes - most recently a Brazilian leader was sent home - suggested the time was right.
"I don't think it would take very much except political will, but I fear Bob Carr doesn't have much more time left (in office) and I don't know whether his replacement will have the appetite for history he has," he said in reference to the expected federal election outcome later this year.
St Nicholas rector the reverend Paul Burden rubbished suggestions Phillip's final resting place was unknown and said it was exactly where his grave tablet said it was.
"I want to scotch those rumours," Mr Burden said. "There was a report, which in my understanding was misrepresented, where they noted the tablet over his grave was moved but that was only in orientation. He is buried there in the normal east-west position. There are substantial records to show he is buried there."
Mr Burden recently erected a small display in his church honouring the admiral, which he said had been popular with visitors. He also said it was Phillip's express wish to be buried in the church with his wife and if the Australian Government took him they would have to take her too.
"He has to stay here," he said.
Mr Robertson said his "shabby" resting place spoke volumes of what the British thought of the Australian hero and it was time they gave him up.
He was not buried at Westminster Abbey with other national heroes.
He said Australians should respect Phillip, to "whom we owe a great deal of our philosophy of egalitarianism and fair play".
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/move-to-return-remains-of-admiral-arthur-phillip-to-australia-for-state-funeral/story-e6frg6n6-1226645589720

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