Death

''…although the happiness and delight of my life lie buried there […], I have not made a coffin of my heart.'' Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Dickens died at his home at Gad’s Hill Place at the age of 58.  He suffered a stroke on 8^th June 1870, after spending the whole day writing Edwin Drood.  He never regained consciousness and died the following day at 6:10pm.  Dickens’s funeral service took place on 14^th June 1870 at Westminster Abbey and was followed by a 3-day-long procession of mourners.  Despite his desire for a humble, private service at Rochester Cathedral, he was buried in the Poet’s Corner at Westminster Abbey.  Dickens requested in his will that no memorial be built in his memory. 

Dickens’s tomb was inscribed with the words: ‘Charles Dickens Born 7^th February 1812 Died 9^th June 1870.’ 

A statement distributed at his funeral read: ‘To the Memory of Charles Dickens (England’s most popular author) who died at his residence, Higham, near Rochester, Kent, June 9^th, 1870, aged 58 years.  He was a sympathiser with the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world..’

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