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The variety of famous people buried in the greater Philadelphia area is astounding. The city’s most famous grave is probably Benjamin Franklin’s while prominent abolitionist Lucretia Mott’s is more off the beaten path and sportscaster Harry Kalas’s can’t be missed thanks to its microphone-shaped memorial. The list is long and varied. But, so far, the most surprising person that we’ve learned about being buried in the area is James Bond.
Yes, the real James Bond.
I was so surprised to learn 1) that James Bond was a real person and 2) that he is buried in Montgomery County that I had to learn the backstory and go check out the grave for myself.
While the man in question was not an agent for MI5 or (I assume) a ladies’ man who drove like his life depended on it, enjoyed a good martini, and jumped off tall bridges, his name is well known thanks to the 40 books and 25 movies that bear it.
The origin of the James Bond name
According to Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond books, he loved a book called Birds of the West Indies written by noted ornithologist James Bond. Fleming was looking for “a really flat, quiet name” for his spy/womanizer/action hero and felt that “Bond” was the perfect fit.
In the years after co-opting the name, Fleming struck up a relationship with Bond and his wife, Mary. He even offered that since he’d made the Bond name so famous that Bond could use the name “Ian Fleming” in any way he wished, including naming an especially annoying or ugly species of birds.
Why is he buried in Montgomery County?
It turns out that the Bonds were locals who lived in Chestnut Hill. James was the curator of the bird collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (then the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences). A comment I found on social media suggested that the Bond family regularly vacationed in the Spring House area when James was a child, so his belonging to a nearby church makes sense.
Where is the burial site?
James and Mary F. W. Bond are buried next to each other in the Church of the Messiah cemetery in Lower Gwynedd. I went to visit the church myself as it was difficult to find their graves’ exact location online.
After wandering around the cemetery directly behind the church, I found the two low-profile headstones that mark the spots. They are flat against the ground unlike many of the nearby grave markers, which makes them a little bit challenging to spot.
If you’re walking from the parking lot, the Bonds are in the fourth row of graves (on the third gravel path) between a water faucet and a large tree. The row is labeled “J” with a small marker that is also nearly flat against the ground.
As a lover of trivia, history, and everything unique about the Philly area, learning about this story and having the chance to visit the grave was fascinating.