Tony Grist (poliphilo) wrote,
Tony Grist
poliphilo

British State Funerals

I asked Wikipedia.

The difference between a state funeral and a ceremonial funeral is that a state funeral has to be voted for in parliament. There's no difference in ritual between the two (ceremonial funerals may include a lying in state) except that in a ceremonial funeral the gun carriage is drawn by horses and in a state funeral by sailors. This latter tradition dates from an incident at the funeral of Queen Victoria when the horses bolted and a bunch of naval ratings took their place.

Here's a list of all the non-royal state funerals since time began.

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