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Swindon written in James Bond history
Here lies the grave of one of Swindon's most famous residents
An author who died just as the world was recognising his writing brilliance - and whose name is still blazoned over billboards, magazines and adverts promoting James Bond films.
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond and the man who penned every one of 007's famous adventures, is buried in the parish church of St. James's, Sevenhampton, near Highworth. The obelisk on his gravestone marking the most noticeable - yet still unassuming - monument in the churchyard.
He was buried there on 15 August 1964 - three days after his death, and just a month before his spy creation hit the cinema screens for the third time in the blockbuster 'Goldfinger' starring Sean Connery, the film that really made James Bond a worldwide phenomenon.
His final resting place is just within sight of Warneford Place, the grand country house that Fleming had bought in 1959 with his wife Ann, and where he spent the majority of his time during his later years. On finally moving in permanently in 1963 (Fleming had the original 16th century house demolished and replaced with a more modern residence which took 4 years to build and furnish), the author had planned to settle down and involve himself in the local community, according to his biographer Andrew Lycett. But growing ill health following a heart attack in 1961 restricted this committment to helping the local Conservative parliamentary candidate, Charles Morrison, with a number of speeches and supporting a Swindon boys' club with a £60 donation and a promise to give a talk (which never materialised).
A keen golfer, Fleming preferred to travel to his favourite club at Sandwich in Kent to play, (the Wrag Barn course, which now overlooks Sevenhampton, only opened in 1990) and it was there that he collapsed and eventually died in a Canterbury hospital on 12 August 1964. He was 56.
At the time of his death, Fleming left three short stories still unfinished - 'The Living Daylights' and 'Octopussy' among them - works that would later be turned into two of 007's largest-grossing movies starring Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Indeed, during Fleming's time living near Swindon, he enjoyed some of the most productive (he also wrote the story for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) - and certainly most lucrative - years of his life having sold the film rights of his books to Eon Productions and selling millions of copies of his novels as a consequence.
The year after his death, the combined sales of his 12 James Bond books topped 27 million worldwide, making him one of the biggest-selling authors of all time. The Fleming grave at St. James's also contains the remains of his wife, Ann, who passed away in 1981 and his son, Casper, who died of a drug overdose in 1975. Enscribed on his tomb stone is the latin 'Omnia perfunctus vitae praemia marces', which roughly translated means 'You are rotting away now after having had a great life'. Warneford Place is now owned by formula one empresario Paddy McNally and is maintained as a strictly private estate.
Bond in Swindon - more connections...
You may be surprised to know that Ian Fleming isn't the only 007 link with Swindon. Our town has been shaken and stirred by the sauve and sophisticated world of James Bond more than once.
Just click on the link below to find out more.
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 History: Local History |
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| Ian Fleming |
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| James Bond |
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