State funerals in the UK are usually reserved for monarchs and very exceptionally, a state funeral may be held to honour a highly distinguished national figure. In fact there have only been nine state funerals for non-monarchs in the past 500 years.
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The last state funeral in the United Kingdom was held in January 1965 for Sir Winston Churchill.
A state funeral involves a military procession bearing the coffin on a gun carriage from a private resting chapel to Westminster Hall, where the body lies in state for three days. Later, there is a service at Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s.
Other funerals (including those of senior members of the Royal Family and high-ranking public figures) may share many of the characteristics of a state funeral without being names as such; for these, the term ‘ceremonial funeral’ is used.
The main difference between a ‘State’ and ‘Ceremonial’ funeral is during a state funeral, the gun carriage bearing the coffin is drawn by sailors; in a ceremonial funeral it is drawn by horses.
The nine non-monarch state funerals:
Sir Philip Sidney (1586);
Horatio Nelson (1806);
Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington (1852);
Henry John Temple – Lord Palmerston (1865);
Charles Darwin (1882);
William Gladstone (1898);
first Earl Roberts of Kandahar (1914);
Baron Edward Carson (1935);
Sir Winston Churchill (1965)
