3-075-045 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Funeral of Lord Napier of Magdala: The Crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1890. 'The ceremonies attending the public funeral of this distinguished veteran soldier and servant of the British Empire, on Tuesday, Jan. 21, excited the greater notice from the arrangement by which, as he had held the office of Constable of the Tower of London, his coffin was conveyed with a military escort from the ancient and historic fortress, where it lay in state that morning, to St. Paul's Cathedral, to be laid in the crypt there...Between eleven and twelve o'clock the procession moved from the Tower to St. Paul's Cathedral...In the centre, under the dome, was an aperture of the pavement to the crypt beneath, with a platform to be lowered by pulleys...[After the service] a company of soldiers lifted the coffin from its bier, placed it on the platform, and the level of the floor. It slowly descended...the chief personages advanced to the edge of the opening, and gazed down into the crypt. None except the mourners were allowed to go below...After the coffin disappeared the strains of the Dead March in "Saul" arose, and the congregation dispersed'. Sir Robert Napier, leader of the punitive expedition to Abyssinia, died of the 'flu. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.