19 April 2021 5:04pm
When Lord Byron died in Missolonghi 197 years ago today (19 April, 1824), he was the poet superstar of European letters. His celebrity not only drew world attention to the Greek cause against their Ottoman overlords, but his personal contribution to that cause at the ultimate cost of his life was also huge.
The British newspaper the Observer recently unearthed a bank note of exchange/cheque in the Greek state archives which reflects on the poet’s commitment to the Greek cause and the generosity for which he was famous.
In the note of exchange drawn in Kefalonia (one of the Ionian Islands under British rule) on 12 November, 1823, Lord Byron instructs that £4,000 be paid to the representative of the Greek provisional government, Giovanni Orlando. The amount which is the equivalent of £332,000 ($594,000 Australian) today was to finance the emergency needs of the Greeks.