The 'spiritual founder' of University College London, Jeremy Bentham who died 181 years ago, can usually be found in a cabinet in a university corridor.
But he was moved earlier this week to mark the last council meeting attended by retiring provost Sir Malcolm Grant.
Bentham, a philosopher regarded as the founder of utilitarianism, requested that his skeleton should be preserved and dressed in his own clothes.
One of the many myths surrounding him is that he attends every UCL council meeting and is always recorded as 'present but not voting'.
UCL curator Nick Booth said: 'It's a brilliant story. It has everything: a dead body, academic eccentricity, reanimation of a corpse, ancient tradition. What's not to love? Except, unfortunately, it's a myth, one of the many legends that have built up around the “old radical” that he would have enjoyed.'
It took three people to get him out of his glass box and, as he is bolted to his chair, he was moved in one piece.
- Metro
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