State and ceremonial funerals
Standard Note:

SN/PC/06600

Last updated:

31 July 2013

Author:Paul Bowers

SectionParliament and Constitution Centre

This Note explains the arrangements for state and ceremonial funerals, including examples
from the past. It shows the distinction between the two types of funeral, looks at what is
known about the process to decide whether a state funeral will be held for a commoner, andprovides some information on costs.

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Contents1

2

3State and ceremonial funerals

3State3Ceremonial

3

Decision-making process

32.1

The Sovereign3

2.2

The Prime Minister

4

2.3

The funeral recipient

4

2.4

Cabinet, Parliament and the Opposition

5

Examples and costs

5

3.1

Examples of state funerals

5Sir Winston Churchill, 30 January 1965

5The Duke of Wellington, 18 November 1852

6

Examples of ceremonial funerals

6The Queen Mother, 9 April 2002

6Princess Diana, 6 September 1997

7Baroness Thatcher, 17 April 2013

7

3.22

1

State and ceremonial funeralsState funerals are relatively rare, and are sometimes mixed in the popular imagination withother funerals of senior royal figures, which are held in public with ceremonial features but do
not constitute state funerals in a formal sense. Typically, in either type of funeral, there is amilitary procession carrying the coffin to Westminster Hall, a period of lying in state, and aservice at Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral.
StateA state funeral is defined by the Royal Encyclopedia as “generally limited to Sovereigns, butmay, by order of the reigning monarch and by a vote of Parliament providing the fund, beextended to exceptionally distinguished persons.” 1Examples of people other than monarchs who have been given a state funeral include SirIsaac Newton, Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Palmerston and Sir Winston
Churchill.
A state funeral is commonly held to differ from a ceremonial funeral in two respects: aparliamentary motion authorises it, and the gun carriage bearing the coffin to the lying instate has, since the funeral of Queen Victoria, been drawn by Royal Navy sailors rather thanby horses.
Ceremonial
A ceremonial royal funeral is “for those members of the Royal Family who hold high militaryrank, for the consort of the Sovereign and heir to the throne”. 2 The Queen Mother was givena ceremonial royal funeral, and Princess Diana’s funeral was also a ceremonial rather thanstate funeral. Baroness Thatcher had a ceremonial funeral with full military honours at St
Paul’s Cathedral on 17 April 2013. 3 The coffin left Westminster by hearse, but was thentransferred to a gun carriage for the final procession to St Paul’s, drawn by the King’s Troop
Royal Artillery and met by a guard of honour at the Cathedral. Later, her ashes were to belaid beside those of her husband at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, after a private cremation.

2Decision-making process

The process for deciding when a state funeral should be held for a person other than theSovereign is relatively unclear, not least since it happens so rarely and at long historicalintervals. There is no official process set out in public, but the Sovereign, Prime Minister, andParliament have been involved in the past.
2.1

The Sovereign

The first day that Parliament sat following the death of Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister
Harold Wilson brought a message from the Queen “signed by Her Majesty’s own hand,”
which stated:
I know that it will be the wish of all my people that the loss which we have sustained by
the death of the Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill, K.G., should be met in themost fitting manner, and they should have an opportunity of expressing their sorrow at
the loss and their veneration of the memory of that outstanding man who in war and123R Allison and S Riddell eds, The Royal Encyclopedia, 1991
Ibid
Information on arrangements for Lady Thatcher’s funeral, press release, 10 Downing Street, 8 April 20133

peace served his country unfailingly for more than 50 years and in the hours of ourgreatest danger was the inspiring leader who strengthened and supported us all.
Confident that I can rely upon the support of my faithful Commons, and upon theirliberality in making suitable provision for the proper discharge of our debt of gratitude
and tribute of national sorrow, I have directed that Sir Winston’s body shall lie in Statein Westminster Hall and that thereafter the funeral service shall be held in theCathedral Church of St Paul.
ELIZABETH REGINA

2.2

4

The Prime Minister

For the state funerals of former Prime Ministers, the current Prime Minister has moved amotion in the House. In 1965 Wilson moved:
That a humble Address be presented to her Majesty, humbly to thank her Majesty forhaving given directions for the body of the Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill,
Knight of the Garter, to lie in state in Westminster Hall and for the funeral service to beheld in the Cathedral Church of St Paul and assuring her Majesty of our cordial aid andconcurrence in these measures for expressing the affection and admiration in which
the memory of this great man is held by this House and all her Majesty’s faithful
5subjects.

On the day of Gladstone’s death Balfour, Conservative leader in the Commons, stated:
No persuasion need be exercised by me in inducing even the most scrupulous to join
in an Address which we shall, I believe, unanimously vote this afternoon, for all feelthat the great career which has just drawn to its close is a career already in large part a
matter of history, and none of us will find even a momentary difficulty in forgetting anyof the controversial aspects of his life, even though we ourselves may to some extent
have been involved in them.

He went on to move the motion:
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, that Her Majesty will be
graciously pleased to give directions that the remains of the Right Hon. William Ewart
Gladstone be interred at the public charge, and that a monument be erected in theCollegiate Church of St. Peter’s, Westminster, with an inscription expressive of thepublic admiration and attachment, and of the high sense entertained of his rare andsplendid gifts, and his devoted labours in Parliament and in great offices of State, andto assure Her Majesty that this House will make good the expenses attending the6same.

2.3

The funeral recipient

It appears that in at least some cases in the past, the funeral recipient has been asked
whether they wish to receive a state funeral some years before they pass away. This wascertainly the case for Sir Winston Churchill. John Brooke-Little, then Officer at Arms, stated inRoyal Ceremonies of State:
It all began some five years before Sir Winston died. At that time his health seemed
uncertain and it was the wish of the Queen and the Prime Minister to offer him the456HC Deb 25 January 1965 c667
HC Deb 25 January 1965 cc667-8
HC Deb 20 May 1898 c124-125

4signal honour of a State Funeral. His son, the late Mr Randolph Churchill, was deputed
to ask his father if he wanted such a splendid farewell. He did: guns, trumpets,soldiers, the lot! From that moment, discreetly and secretly, we began to plan what wascode-named ‘Operation Hope Not’. 7Disraeli was reportedly offered a state funeral, but declined the offer in his will.
Baroness Thatcher was consulted on her funeral arrangements. According to her spokesman
Lord Bell, “she specifically did not want a state funeral and nor did her family. She particularly
did not wish to lie in state as she thought that was not appropriate.” 8 Baroness Thatcher also
reportedly asked not to have a military fly-past on grounds of cost. The Downing Street press
release on her funeral arrangements described the choice of ceremonial funeral as “in linewith the wishes of her family and with the Queen’s consent.” 92.4

Cabinet, Parliament and the Opposition

It is not clear whether Cabinet is consulted, or whether the official Opposition is consulted
before the announcement takes place. Parliamentary approval has been sought (primarily toauthorise funds), but the House did not divide on the motions associated with the decisions
to hold state funerals for Churchill, Gladstone and Wellington.

3Examples and costs

The practical organisation of state funerals is the responsibility of the Earl Marshall and theCollege of Arms, although other actors such as parliamentary officials and the police will also
be involved. The costs of state funerals are borne by the state. The general authorisation
would be made in a motion, probably moved by the Prime Minister, and approved by theHouse of Commons (because of its financial privilege). The financial prerogative of theCrown means that the motion would have to come from the Government, and it is likely thata Prime Minister would want to lead the debate on a motion that would also express therespect of the House for the deceased. Subsequently, there would have to be asupplementary estimate for the money, which could be rolled in with the other supplementary
estimates or taken on its own, and which would likely be moved formally in the name of theFinancial Secretary to the Treasury. 103.1

Examples of state funerals

Sir Winston Churchill, 30 January 1965
The most recent state funeral was that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965.
On 6 March 1965 The Times reported that the “Churchill funeral cost £48,000”:
A sum of £48,000 to meet the cost of the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill isincluded in Supplementary Estimates amounting to £168,000 presented to Parliamentyesterday.
The total is made up of £15,000 for the Earl Marshal’s office to defray expenses
connected with the funeral arrangements including the service in St Paul’s Cathedral;£19,000 for the Ministry of Defence to cover the travelling and other expenses ofService personnel;
78
910J Brooke-Little, Royal Ceremonies of State, 1980, p109
Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2013
Information on arrangements for Lady Thatcher’s funeral, press release, 10 Downing Street, 8 April 2013
Erskine May, 24th ed, 2011, pp716-7, 732-3, and 735-8

5

£2,000 to cover the expenses of fire, police and civil defence services;£7,000 for the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works for expenses connected with thelying-in-state at Westminster Hall, and for works carried out along the route of theprocession;£3,000 for printing;£1,000 to meet expenses of departments of the Queen’s Household; and£1,000 for miscellaneous expenses. 11The Duke of Wellington, 18 November 1852
On 25 January 1965 The Times compared the likely arrangements for Sir Winston Churchill’s
funeral to that of the Duke of Wellington:
Although the state funeral for Sir Winston has no precise precedent, the honours paid
to the first Duke of Wellington and to Gladstone have been borne in mind. The Duke
died at Walmer Castle and his body was carried to Chelsea Hospital to lie in state
there for several days. According to estimates made at the time, the funeral procession
from the Horse Guards to St Paul’s Cathedral was watched by about 1,500,000
mourners. A Bill was brought in to authorize public expenditure on the funeral and on a12monument, and £80,000 was voted by Parliament.

The House was asked to vote on the Supply for the funeral on 6 December 1852. The costswere broken down as follows:
The principal items were as follows: The accounts in the department of Public Works,
including all that was done in the Cathedral amounted to 25,000l.; the Lord
Chamberlain’s and Earl Marshal’s were not fully rendered yet, but were estimated at33,000l.; the expenses connected with the removal of the troops were 8,500l.; andthere were expenses connected with their lodging, which might make the amountsomething more. The accounts received at present exceeded 70,000l., but he13
believed the whole expenses would not be 80,000l.

3.2

Examples of ceremonial funerals

The Queen Mother, 9 April 2002
It is difficult to provide an accurate estimate for the total cost of the Queen Mother's funeral,but there is some information available on components. There may well be other costs thatare not accounted for:
Lying in state
The costs for the lying in state of the Queen Mother were to be shared between the House ofCommons and the House of Lords. The Commons share was estimated at £495,000. 14
Other joint funding arrangements between the two Houses tend to involve the Commons
paying a 60% share. If this relationship held true for the lying in state, the total cost would bearound £825,000.
Policing
1112
1314The Times, 6 March 1965, p10The Times, 25 January 1965, p12Ibid, c1037
HC Deb 8 Jul 2002 c657W

6

Budget details from the Metropolitan Police Authority indicate that the total cost of policing
the Queen Mother's funeral was £4.3 million, of which £2.3 million were opportunity costs(costs that would be incurred anyway if staff were assigned to other operations) and £2.1
million were additional costs directly attributed to the funeral arrangements. 15
Ministry of defence costs
A letter in response to a Parliamentary Question from Gordon Prentice stated that the total
Ministry of Defence budget was £301,000, and that all costs had been borne from within
existing budgets. 16
Mourning stationery
The Home Office covered the cost of the notification mourning envelopes and letterhead
stationery, estimated at £1,817. 17
Princess Diana, 6 September 1997
The Times the cost of Princess Diana’s ceremonial funeral was greater than £3m and may
have been closer to £5m. 18
Baroness Thatcher, 17 April 2013
The costs of Baroness Thatcher’s ceremonial funeral were borne by the Government and herestate. 19 The public expenditure, aside from opportunity costs, was announced in a Written
Ministerial Statement:
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: On 25 April 2013 the Cabinet Office published an estimateof the costs of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral, and confirmed that the final amount ofpublic money spent would be published before the summer recess.
The confirmed costs for the funeral are £261,976, which includes staff overtime, whereappropriate. Original estimated costs (from April 2013) were around £500,000.
The costs for the organisations involved are as follows:

1516

17
1819

Organisation

Cost (£)

Cabinet Office

31,978City of London Corporation

7,000

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

78,244

Greater London Authority

8,311

London Ambulance Service

20,445

Ministry of Defence

39,057

http://policeauthority.org/metropolitan/downloads/committees/cop/cop-030307-04-appendix01.pdf
Letter dated 25.06.2002 from Adam Ingram MP to Gordon Prentice MP regarding the estimate of the cost tothe public funds of the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Lords Location: HINF
2002/1455HC Deb 21 Oct 2002 cc90-91W
Times, 16 March 2005
Independent, 8 April 2013, citing Downing Street sources.

7Organisation

Cost (£)

Parliament

1,700

St Paul’s Cathedral #67,908

Transport for London

1,000

Westminster City Council

6,333# these costs were paid for by the Cabinet Office but are listed separately for greater
clarity
The direct policing and security costs for the funeral are £943,833. Original estimatedcosts (from April 2013) were £1.1 million.
The costs for each police service involved are as follows:
Police service

Cost (£)

British Transport Police

25,233

City of London Police

73,000Metropolitan Police

845,600

Both figures are the marginal costs, meaning money spent specifically on the funeral,
as opposed to costs that would have been incurred in any case.
No public money was spent on the reception at the Guildhall, which was paid for by theCity of London Corporation and not out of public funds.
Further costs were met by Baroness Thatcher’s estate. 20

According to the Guardian, 29 July 2013:
The Cabinet Office also confirmed the "opportunity cost" of the policing – the cost ofhaving 4,000 officers guarding the funeral and hence not available for duties elsewhere– was estimated at £2m.
More than 700 members of the armed forces were also involved in the event in April,
but the Cabinet Office said it did not have an "opportunity cost" for their deployment
because this was much harder to calculate than for the police.

20

HL Deb 29 July 2013, c161WS. See “Funeral of Baroness Thatcher cost £1.2m,” BBC News online, 29 July2013.

8