Thomas Vaughan - Blue Plaque - Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Great Britain.
N 52° 36.671 E 001° 43.616
31U E 413800 N 5829779
Great Yarmouth 'body snatcher' Thomas Vaughan marked by blue plaque The plaque was erected at St Nicholas' Church in Great Yarmouth Minster, Norfolk, Great Britain.
Waymark Code: WMGV81
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/11/2013
Views: 4
"The memorial blue plaque at St Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth Minster, marks the life of Thomas Vaughan, who exhumed at least 10 bodies from the graveyard in 1827.
The culprit, employed by the vicar's son, loaded the dead bodies into crates and then on to trains.
Large rewards were given by London surgeons in exchange for the bodies.
"Body snatching refers to the profitable trade during the 19th Century of digging-up the dead from their graves and selling the bodies to medical schools,"
Historians said more than 20 bodies were exhumed from the graveyard in the same year.
Andrew Fakes, president of the Great Yarmouth Local History and Archaeological Society that created the plaque, said the corpses had been in high demand for use as test subjects on medical procedures.
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