3-082-183 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Right Hon. Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, P.C., M.P., 1895. 'Born Feb 13, 1849, Died Jan. 24, 1895...a great assemblage of friends, colleagues, and members of the public thronged Westminster Abbey [for the funeral]. There was everything to remind one that it was a memorial service of a Member of Parliament. The flag of St. Margaret's, the church of the House of Commons, hung half-mast high, and inside the Abbey it seemed as though Parliament had already reassembled. The service commenced just after the beautiful chimes of Westminster, which Lord Randolph heard so often, had sounded forth from Big Ben...The first sentences in the Order for the Burial of the Dead were sung to music by Purcell as the clergy and the choir entered. The service was read in a clear and impressive manner by the venerable Dean Bradley...The choir rendered Goss's setting to the anthem "I heard a voice from Heaven," and a, solemn effect was produced by the congregational singing of the two hymns chosen by Lady Randolph -"Rock of Ages" and "'Now the labourer's task is o'er." At the conclusion of the service Handel's noble "Dead March" throbbed through the Abbey, where so often it has commemorated the burial of those who have "done the State some service"...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.