Nearly half a century since the gravestone of WA’s first governor James Stirling was found smashed in a pile of rubble in an English churchyard, and more than 40 years since it was reassembled and relocated, it is deteriorating and seemingly all but forgotten.

And a decade after his actual grave — which also contains his wife Ellen — was finally pinpointed by a dedicated team of heritage enthusiasts in Perth and Britain, it remains hidden away against a fence line and under overgrown shrubs.

After leaving the Swan River Colony in 1839, Stirling continued his naval career, becoming an admiral in 1862.

He died in Guildford in Surrey on April 22, 1865 and was buried at St John’s Stoke Guildford, England and Ellen with him nine years later.

One of the driving forces in discovering his fate

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