George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron, the English Poet and one of the major figures of the Romantic movement died aged 36, after contracting a fever following the seiges of Missolonghi.
“Advices arrived in London on Friday afternoon of the death of Lord Byron, after ten days’ illness of a fever, at Missolonghi, in Greece, on the 19th of April. On the awful and abrupt termination of the career of such a man, we are unable to express our feelings without the danger of guilty compromise on the one side, and illiberal and offensive qualification on the other. The elements of Lord Byron’s literary character are too strongly marked for any middle course : no homage can be too ardent for his genius ; no reprobation too strong for the uses to which it was too frequently applied. That he should have died so early, must be a source of regret to all – even to those who least valued his talents, and most detested his immoralities. If he had passed out of life some years since, his fame and reputatuon would have been clearer and more pure – had he lived some years longer, he might have redeemed them. He has quitted the world at the most unsatisfactory manner – in voluntary exile, when his mind, debased by evil associations, and malignant brooding over imaginary ills, has been devoted to the construction of elaborate lampoons and uncharitable strictures . – Lord Byron was born in the year 1788, near Aberdeen, where he passed his earlier years ; in January 1815 he married, at Seaham, in the county of Durham, the only daughter of Sir Ralph Millbank Noel Bart., who towards the close of the same year brought him a daughter. Within a few weeks after that event, a separation took place, for which various causes have been stated. His Lordship, while the public anxiety as the course he would adopt was at its height, suddenly left the kingdom, with the resolution never to return. – Latterly, as is well known, the Noble Lord attached himself to the cause of the Greeks, in their resistance to the authority of the Ottoman Porte ; and he was rendering, it is said, great assistance to their cause, when, on the 19th of last month, (having been for some time living very low, owing to a slow recovery from previous illness,) he exposed himself in a violent rain ; the consequence of which was a severe cold, and he was immediately confined to his bed. The low state to which he had been reduced by his abstinence, and probably by some of the remaining effects of his previous ilness, made him unwilling – at least he refused – to be bled. The inflammatory action being thus unchecked, terminated fatally on the 19th of April. – There are no letters of his Lordship’s of a dare subsequent to the commencement of his illness, The friends who were near him at the time of his decease, in addition to the Greek Prince Mayrocordato, were a Mr. Parry, who had organised the artillery and engineer corps for the Greeks at Missolonghi, a Mr. Bourke, and Count Gamba. – The letters from the last-named gentleman first communicated the intelligence to Lord Sidney. Osborne, who forwarded it with the kindest attention to the friends of Lord Byron in England, and proceeded from Corfu to Zante, to make whatever arrangements might be necessary respecting his remains.”
The Stamford Mercury, 21st May, 1824.