On this date April 19 in the year 1824, Lord Byron (whose real name was George Gordon) died of a fever. He was persuaded to take part in the Greek War of Independence by an Irish sea captain. He joined the cause in Greece, training troops in the town of Missolonghi, where he died just after his 36th birthday.

After his death Byron was mourned by both the British and the Greeks, to whom he had become a hero of the war. To this day, the name ‘Vyron’ the Greek form of ‘Byron’, continues to be a popular boy’s name, and a suburb of Athens is called Vyronas in his honour.

Lord Byron's heart was removed from his corpse and buried in Greece, and the rest of his remains were shipped back to England.