3-086-367 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Funeral of Mr. Gladstone: arrival of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs at Westminster Abbey, 1898. 'From Photograph by Bolas...About half-past ten the Clerk of Parliaments gave the signal, whereupon the Lord Chancellor rose and proclaimed the order of procession. A few minutes later he left the House, preceded by the Serjeant-at-Arms and the Purse-bearer, and followed by peers. In the first rank walked the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Cross. The Lords' procession followed exactly the same route as that taken by the Commons some ten minutes earlier...The procession moved away from Palace Yard along the route lined by thousands of sorrowing spectators and guarded by the Eton College Volunteers, who, as the body approached, presented arms - a last honour from his old school to Mr. Gladstone. The cortege appeared just on the stroke of eleven, but several hours previously the congregation within the Abbey had been assembling. Ticket-holders were admitted from half-past eight in the morning until ten o'clock.' British Prime Minister William Eward Gladstone (born 1809) died on 19 May 1898, and was buried in Westminster Abbey in London on 26 May. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.