A corpse sealed in a lead coffin for nearly nine decades may yield the clues to fight a future outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus.

Scientists want to exhume the body of Sir Mark Sykes, a British traveller and victim of the 1919 Spanish flu pandemic, in hopes that viral particles still alive in his body will tell them more about how to defend the world against the modern bird flu.

Sykes, who died 88 years ago, is largely credited as one of the key players in dismantling the Ottoman Empire. Being a famous diplomat, Sykes's body was photographed before it was interred, making his coffin one of the few on record known to contain a Spanish flu victim.

The interest in investigating Sykes's body is augmented by the fact he was buried in a lead-lined casket in order to prevent the disease that claimed him from spreading.

"We're after an intact body. Sometimes people who have been buried in lead are very well preserved," said John Oxford, a professor of virology at Queen Mary's College. "If we obtain [the body], then we can ask a lot of important questions about the way that Sir Mark died."

If the suspicions of researchers prove correct and there is enough preserved human tissue to take samples from, the scientists hope they will be able to learn from the bird flu that killed Sykes and then design better treatments against the H5N1 strain of today.

Similarities between Spanish flu and H5N1

Victims of Spanish flu, which killed more than 40 million people worldwide between 1918 and 1920, frequently experienced an overly aggressive immune response, which attacked their own bodies. The same phenomenon has been seen in human H5N1 cases.

"The first thing we'll be looking at is the pathology of the lung — whether he was overwhelmed by his own immune response," Oxford said.

However, it will not be known how well Sykes's body was preserved until he is unearthed, Oxford warned: "These are all expectations and hopes that can be easily dashed."

The Sykes grandchildren have already given permission for the scientific investigation, as has the Church of England, which ruled that the possible benefits of the research outweighed the church's preference for leaving human remains undisturbed.

Still, Oxford said he will need approval from Britain's health and safety body.

Drew up plans to dismantle Ottoman Empire

An aristocratic, well-travelled and talented linguist, Sykes was chosen to draw up the British half of a secret agreement to divide the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire into French and British spheres of influence, drawing lines that would eventually coalesce into the borders of Iraq, Syria and Israel.

Sykes later returned to the Middle East to try to secure an understanding among French, British and Arab officials there, a marathon effort that taxed his endurance, Sykes's biographer Roger Adelson said.

He travelled to Paris in early 1919 and died soon afterward.

Although he was a Roman Catholic, Sykes was buried in a Church of England graveyard at St. Mary Sledmere church, near his ancestral home about 320 kilometres north of London.

With files from the Associated Press