Highgate School holds funeral for biology department skeleton
The school, which charges up to £10,525 per term, said that no relatives could be contacted as there were no records of who the woman was or how her skeleton came into the school's possession.
Highgate School was founded in 1565
YUI MOK/PA
Highgate School, which is not accused of any wrongdoing, was reported to have spent three years negotiating with the relevant authorities before the funeral could take place.
Alumni include Phil Tufnell, the English bowler, and Tom Hooper, the Academy award-winning director of The King's Speech and Les Misérables, while notable members of staff include TS Eliot, the Nobel prize-winning poet and literary critic, and Adrian Berg, the landscape painter.
The ceremony led to calls for reforms over the ownership and display of human remains. Recent changes have prevented the public display of 'relevant material' from a deceased person, leading some schools to put skeletons in storage. Some skeletons may be exempt if they are more than 100 years old and not for used for purposes such as public display.
Dan Hicks, a professor of contemporary archaeology at the University of Oxford, applauded the school for looking into the provenance of the skeleton.
'This is an interesting case that shines a light on something that runs far deeper into British culture than we would like to think. There's no regulation at the moment over the holding of human remains in our institutions,' he said.
The procession was led by priests and Adam Pettitt, the headmaster
'If you find a human skull or skeleton under somebody's desk in a school or a university or an infirmary, or a hospital, there is no regulation unless they are from these more recent times,' he added. 'At the moment, it's a free-for-all all and it's still legal to buy and sell human remains in this country'.Corrine Fowler, a professor of postcolonial literature at the University of Leicester, said that if the ancestors can be traced, 'these unloved remains should be returned to those who will cherish them'. 'Schools and museums need clear guidance to help them address this matter. Any reforms must allow consideration on a case-by-case basis, emphasise close collaboration with source communities and ensure that, where appropriate, remains are repatriated and lovingly laid to rest,' she said.
Lord Boateng, a former home office minister, told the Camden New Journal that he had called for a total stop to the trade of human remains as 'objects of curiosity'. 'The law and practical guidance in relation to the trade and retention of human remains is either non-existent or outdated and in urgent need of clarification and reform. The days in which the people of other lands and with different coloured skins were felt to be less important in terms of human decency, even in death must surely be at an end,' he said.'Action from government is needed now to draw a line under what amounts to a shaming example of historic neglect of human decency affecting our relationship with the peoples of so many lands beyond these shores.'A spokesman for Highgate School said: 'The skeleton has been in our biology department for some time, but there are no available local or archive records to clarify the origin of the skeleton or their next of kin.'We have followed national guidance by consulting with the local authority, London Diocesan Registrar and other local representatives and have received a formal burial notice.'In order to ensure we treat the deceased with dignity and respect, we invited representatives of different faiths to the interment. We received a coroner's order for burial from North London coroner service, signed on May 2 2025.'
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport did not respond to a request for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
Huddersfield 7/7 survivor was 'in right place at the wrong time'
A survivor of the 7/7 London bombings whose actions helped save other passengers says she believes she was in the "right place at the wrong time".Julie Imrie was on her Piccadilly line commute to work 20 years ago when a series of bombs were detonated on London's public transport system, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds aged 22, it was Ms Imrie's actions that were credited with saving the life of fellow passenger Paul Mitchell after she tied a tourniquet around his damaged about the horror, Ms Imrie, from Huddersfield, said: "In that moment when I realised I was still alive, I was like this is survival mode, you need to help people." Ms Imrie had been sitting in the front carriage of the packed train between King's Cross and Russell Square when Germaine Lindsay - one of the four suicide bombers responsible for the attacks - detonated his bomb just after it pulled out of King's Cross recalled being "blasted backwards" and thinking: "I am having a nightmare, this is not real".She said: "I opened my eyes and it wasn't a nightmare."I turned to my right to look at where this sound had come from and I saw this huge fireball coming towards me and I remember looking at it and then turning away. "I remember thinking I am going to die, I'm going to be with my grandma and grandad, and that was the last thought that I had." Afterwards, Ms Imrie described how the carriage was "plunged into darkness" and "the moans and really quiet noises started at first and then grew louder".She said: "People were very seriously injured. They were in so much pain, people were screaming for help."At this point, Ms Imrie realised her legs were entwined with a man who was sitting directly in front of her."We started speaking and said hello and introduced ourselves and he said his name was Paul Mitchell."We just started talking and it became clear that his leg was very seriously injured and he was losing a lot of blood." Using her coat, Ms Imrie tied a tourniquet around his leg with other passengers passing down different items to help stem the flow of blood."At this point I tried to reassure people as well and say look, everything is going to be OK, something has happened but we are going to be OK, help will be on its way," she said. After about 45 minutes of being trapped, they were rescued by emergency services. Ms Imrie recalled walking out of the wreckage barefoot and holding the hand of fellow survivor Matthew the following days, she and Mr Mitchell managed to reconnect, leading to a lasting friendship borne out of tragedy."We saved his leg and ultimately his life and he always thanks me every 7 July."She added: "I remember when he got in touch to tell me he was going to be a dad and how emotional and pleased I was for him and to know I was able to make that difference." After the attacks, Ms Imrie, who had moved to London the previous year, no longer felt safe and returned to Huddersfield - ironically the same hometown of the 19-year-old bomber who blew up her is a shared link that Ms Imrie has struggled with especially since she now works in a school near to one which Lindsay attended."I work with staff who taught him and who knew him, so that's a constant reminder about what happened."Ms Imrie said she was "proud" and "so glad" she was able to help on 7 July 2005. "I really firmly believe on that day I was in the right place at the wrong time and I was able to do what perhaps other people may not have been able to do, which is completely understandable."She added: "Having those close to me around me at this time of year means the world."I'm in such a lucky position to have that. So many people who went through 7 July, the victims and their families, don't have that so I really appreciate this second chance of life." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
'Surviving 7/7 terrorist attacks changed my life'
On 7 July 2005, London's public transport system was targeted by four suicide bombers who killed 52 people and injured more than 700 during the morning rush hour. Bill Mann, 60, survived the attack and recounts how it changed his life completely. Mr Mann was travelling in a Tube carriage on his way to work in Paddington when Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, detonated a bomb 08:50 BST as the train was coming into Edgware Road station. He survived with minor injuries, but he described that following the blast he realised what mattered in his Mann, from Brentwood, Essex, said: "The only things I wanted to live for were the things that money couldn't buy. "I wanted to be here to have dinner with the kids in the evening, read them books, put them to bed, and I could do all those things regardless of what house I'm living in and what car I drive." Two other bombs were detonated on the London Underground at Aldgate station and Russell Square station and a third bomb exploded on a red double-decker bus beside Tavistock Square."My first memory is actually of flying through the air to the opposite doorway. I thought is this it, is this where it all ends? "I almost felt surprised because it had never occurred to me that I might die young."There was a brief pause, a brief moment of silence, and then the screaming started and I'll always remember it because there were two distinct screams. "I could hear the screams of people in the carriage that were just hysterical, but I could also hear the screams of the people that were badly injured and dying and they were very, very different."Mr Mann stayed onboard the carriage to try and help the injured, before being taken above ground to a nearby Marks and Spencer and then to a hotel. Two years after the terrorist attack Mr Mann's wife of 24 years, Johanne, was diagnosed with cancer. "It felt like I was back in the train, but obviously in many ways it was worse because it was affecting the whole family and the children were very young so that was incredibly hard to deal with," he said. Johanne passed away in 2011, leaving Bill to raise his children alone. He later left his career and became a life coach to try and help others."I can't describe how much my life had changed during that period because of those two events. Some days I would wake up in a dreadful state and think well I've just got to get through today and tomorrow would be different. "Sometimes it would be take each hour as it comes, eventually it does become a bit easier." 'We searched for Carrie' On the other side of London, the bombings robbed another family of a daughter and Taylor, 24, from Billericay, Essex, had just begun a new job at the Royal Society of Arts and had commuted into Liverpool Street station with her mum parted ways and Carrie took a Circle Line train towards Aldgate where bomber Shehzad Tanweer, 22, detonated a bomb which killed her and six others. Her father, John Taylor, was in Essex at the time and he spent days searching for his daughter in hospitals in London following the attack. "We went up to the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel to see if Carrie was there," he said. "We had a picture of Carrie with us and we showed it to the receptionist, she said there are so many people here, but told us there was a lady upstairs that they couldn't identify."She took the photograph and went up to see this other lady, unfortunately she came back down and said, 'I'm very sorry sir, it's not Carrie'," he added. John, June, and Carrie's brother Simon would have to wait ten days for formal identification to confirm Carrie had been killed in the 76, added: "The minute someone tells you you've lost your daughter, you don't know what to do, you just descend into a black hole."You never get over it, but you get used to it. I still go to the station and can be sitting waiting to pick my son up and thinking, Carrie should be on that train." 'I had to help' Off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy, from Nazeing, Essex, was travelling on the same train as Carrie that day. She moved towards the bombed carriage after the explosion to tend to the injured and was later awarded an MBE for said: "We were underground and I couldn't communicate and couldn't protect the scene so I thought I could give basic first aid to keep these people going."Ms Kenworthy keeps in touch with two of the injured she helped, including Martine Wright, who went on to compete for Team GB in the sitting volleyball competition at the Paralympic Games in 2012. She added: "Being a police officer it was my duty to do what I could to help. "On the anniversaries, I always think of the families who lost loved ones and people who were so badly injured and what they had to live with. "They are the people we need to care about." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
London 7/7 bombings: Survivor hopes scars can help others heal
When Sue Greenwood boarded a Piccadilly Line train to do her regular commute to work on 7 July 2005 her life changed tube stops later, Germaine Lindsay boarded the same train, told her "you will have a good day" and detonated a bomb that killed 26 just feet away from the suicide bomber, Mrs Greenwood survived the deadliest of the 7/7 terrorist bombings that in total killed 52 people and injured more than 770. She lost her left leg and suffered many other years later, Mrs Greenwood, 49, lives in Bournemouth with her husband, children and dogs, living a full and happy life. She is an ambassador for the Scar Free Foundation, a medical research charity committed to achieving scarless healing, and shares her story to spread awareness about conflict-wound recovery. On the day of the bombing, Mrs Greenwood was 29 years old and worked as an operating department practitioner at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She recalls her commute to work starting an hour later than normal because she had a mandatory training course to complete. Germaine Lindsay boarded the same train as her at Kings Cross Station with a rucksack full of remembers that he briefly greeted her, which she felt was "an odd thing to say in London".The train left the station platform and moved into the tunnel where the bomb exploded. "I always describe the explosion as a real force, like a real power, so you could feel that power and it was all dark - no noise at all," Mrs Greenwood explains."My first instinct was to get up and help people because that is what I do." Despite wanting to support people in the carriage, she couldn't move: "I had some hand rails across my legs, and I was trying to get it off and it was at that point I saw my left leg and saw the damage that had been done."I'd seen amputations and traumatic injuries before, so I wasn't fearful and always knew I would walk again."Using part of her cardigan, Mrs Greenwood made a tourniquet for her leg and waited for emergency services to arrive."For me I was lucky, I had no pain. No pain whatsoever. I was in fight-or-flight."The biggest shock was waking up [in hospital] and seeing all my other injuries that I didn't know I had."My right leg was also really badly damaged and I had lots of skin blown away at the Achilles tendon."I had deep cuts in my hands." Charlotte Coates, the deputy chief executive of the Scar Free Foundation, says ambassadors like Ms Greenwood allow the charity to find out what priorities in recovery are said: "One of the areas of our work is conflict wounds and blast injuries. "These are typically the type of injuries caused by bombs, caused by velocity, and they are particularly complex and difficult injuries to treat."This velocity, this blast, how does it impact wound healing and what can we do with that knowledge to develop better treatments?"Those kind of treatments will be applicable to soldiers in wars but also sadly civilians involved in terrorist attacks like 7/7." It wasn't until years after the attack that Mrs Greenwood says she properly came to term with her injuries: "I was focused on getting back functionally, and I achieved that really quickly. "But 20 years later, when I reflect back, I was trying to hide my scars. "I had foam around my metal leg to try and make it look normal. You probably wouldn't have known, unless I told you, that I was an amputee."When you have these scars the mental impact and the visualisation of the scars can be really, really traumatic."When you go to a swimming pool for example, people aren't just looking at your amputated leg, but they're looking at your other leg which has all these injuries." During the recovery process, Mrs Greenwood's surgeon introduced her to the Scar Free Foundation, and coming from a medical background, she says she was fascinated by their research so became an ambassador. When asked if she would take an opportunity to get rid of her scars, Mrs Greenwood answers: "In a heartbeat."The moment in time is history and my name is in the history books, but if I could have a functioning limb everyday then absolutely I would take it."She says she feels "incredibly grateful" to have survived that day and is pleased to have used her experience to contribute to medical if faced with her 29-year-old self again, 49-year-old Mrs Greenwood has a lot of advice to give: "I wouldn't probably say 'don't get on the tube'."But I'd also say 'don't take life for granted'. Life is now. Learn from everybody. Be inspired. Always live life to the fullest because you don't know what's going to happen."A fellow survivor calls it 'life number one and life number two'. "Life number two has been very different but just as fulfilling." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
