He was killed from the deadly virus in the year 1919 at the age of 39

Permission has finally been granted by the family of Sir Mark Sykes Bt. of Sledmere House in Yorkshire to exhume his body and allow samples to be taken from it to be used in medical research, which could open new avenues of research to finding a cure for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus. Sir Mark died almost 90 years ago from the Spanish flu which killed an estimated 50 million people before it died out. Like the present outbreaks of flu which have killed humans in Asia, the Spanish flu was also firstly found in birds and therefore any information about it could be useful to dealing with the present situation.

The reason why Sir Mark’s body was considered to be a perfect specimen to take a sample was because it was known that he had been buried in a sealed lead coffin which therefore would have more likely preserved the virus. While there are a few existing samples of the Spanish flu virus they are all said to be of very poor quality and also it is thought that Sir Mark’s sample will be especially good because he caught the bird flu towards the end of the pandemic when it had mutated into its most virulent form. He was killed from the deadly virus in the year 1919 at the age of 39.

The body of Sir Mark will be examined in an air-tight environment to prevent the risk of any contamination and Professor John Oxford from St Bartholomew's and the Royal London Hospital was hopeful that a genetic footprint of the virus’s DNA could be obtained from the body.

Sir Mark until his early death had a distinguished career as a diplomat for the British government where he worked in the Middle East drawing up international boundaries. However if his samples of the Spanish flu virus are able to provide information which leads to a vaccine for the H5N1 bird flu virus his greatest contribution to world events will be yet to come.