The body of Sir Mark Sykes, an important British politician, was exhumed in Britain last week, 89 years after he was felled by Spanish flu. The attempt is to get at some possible clues on the bird flu ravaging the globe now.

The hermetically-sealed coffin was opened as prayers were recited, and samples of the remains of were removed and frozen in liquid nitrogen, for onward transportation to a laboratory. The examination has to be conducted in a special air-tight laboratory to avoid any risk of contamination. The body was reinterred subsequently.

Sir Tatton Benvenuto Mark Sykes, aristocratic diplomat and adventurer, was the British government's lead negotiator in a secret 1916 deal with France to carve up the Ottoman Empire, and he laid the groundwork for the boundaries of much of the present-day Middle East.

While negotiating terms of the peace negotiations to end the First World War in Paris early in 1919, Sir Mark became one of the estimated 50 million victims of the so-called Spanish flu and died in his hotel near the Tuilleries Gardens. Like many victims, he was in his prime at just 39.

Ironically while his diplomatic legacy is blamed partly for the never-ending fratricidal conflicts in the region, his body itself could save millions of lives now.

For scientists believe the DNA samples of Sykes could hold valuable information about how the flu bug makes the leap from animals to humans. The epidemic that claimed Sykes’ life in 1919 was also caused by an avian virus, H1N1 - similar to H5N1, the current bird flu strain.