3-082-165 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Funeral of Lord Randolph Churchill: the scene in Woodstock Church, 1895. '...it was to Bladon, about a mile from stately Blenheim Palace, that the body of Lord Randolph Churchill was taken on Jan. 28. The coffin was removed from 50, Grosvenor Square early in the bleak morning, many scores of wreaths, testifying to the wide circle of friends possessed by the late nobleman. The widow and her two sons, the Duke of Marlborough, the Marquis of Londonderry, Lord and Lady Curzon, Lord Tweedmouth, Lord De Ramsay, and other relatives, journeyed with the remains from Paddington by special train to Woodstock, where the first part of the service was held in the plain Gothic church. The Bishop of Oxford officiated, assisted by the Revs. Dr. Yule, Edgar Sheppard, and T. E. Chataway...Simultaneously a great assemblage of friends, colleagues, and members of the public thronged Westminster Abbey. There was everything to remind one that it was a memorial service of a Member of Parliament...Lord Randolph's bereaved mother, the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, was escorted from her bath-chair to a pew, where she sat with other relatives'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.