On 13 June 2002 a memorial panel in the new Poets’ Corner window was unveiled in memory of Fanny Burney, Mme. d’Arblay. The inscription includes just her name and dates. She was born on 13 June 1752 at King’s Lynn in Norfolk, daughter of Charles and Esther Burney. Her novel Evelina was published anonymously in 1778 and began a new school of fiction with a more realistic portrayal of women. When her authorship was discovered it brought immediate fame. She is known as the “mother of English fiction” and was also a playwright and diarist. She married General Alexandre d’Arblay (d.1818) and at one time they were interned by Napoleon. She died on 6 January 1840 and was buried with her son Alex (d.1837) at St Swithin’s, Walcot, Bath. Her father Charles (1726-1814), author of the celebrated History of Music, has a memorial in the north choir aisle of the Abbey, for which Fanny wrote the inscription.

A photograph of the memorial can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004.
Contact: The Burney Society.