A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately anonymous vehicles to heavily decorated vehicles.
A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements of military tradition. Generally, state funerals are held in order to involve the general public in a national day of mourning after the family of the deceased gives consent. A state funeral will often generate mass publicity from both national and global media outlets.
A funeral director, also known as an undertaker or mortician, is a professional who has licences in funeral arranging and embalming involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the arrangements for the funeral ceremony. Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing, casketing, and cossetting with the proper licences. A funeral director may work at a funeral home or be an independent employee.
Hampstead and Kilburn is a constituency created in 2010 and currently represented in the House of Commons by Tulip Siddiq of the Labour Party. Glenda Jackson was the MP from 2010 to 2015, having served for the predecessor seat since 1992.
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states over the course of her lifetime and remained the monarch of 15 realms by the time of her death. Her reign of over 70 years is the longest of any British monarch and the second longest verified reign of any monarch of a sovereign state in history.
Emanuel Snowman OBE MVO was a British jeweller, local politician and Jewish community leader. He oversaw the opening of the London branch of the Llandudno jewellers Wartski, having married the daughter of its founder, Morris Wartski, and went on to become its chairman.
The London Borough of Camden is a London borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies 1.4 mi (2.3 km) north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 and includes the former Central London borough of Holborn, and St Pancras and Hampstead.
In the United Kingdom, state funerals are usually reserved for monarchs. The most recent was the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022.
Tulip Rizwana Siddiq is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hampstead and Kilburn since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she was the Camden London Borough Councillor for Regent's Park from 2010 until 2014.
On 8 April 2013, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. On 17 April, she was honoured with a ceremonial funeral. Due to polarised opinions about her achievements and legacy, the reaction to her death was mixed across the UK, including contrasting praise, criticism, and celebrations of her life as well as celebrations of her death.
The funeral directors to the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom are selected and appointed by the Lord Chamberlain's Office.
Sarah Hayward is a British Labour Party politician who was Leader of the London Borough of Camden from 2012 to 2017. She successfully challenged Nasim Ali for leadership of the Labour group in 2012.
Beechwood House is a Grade II listed large detached house set in 11 acres of grounds on Hampstead Lane in Highgate, North West London, N6. It was built in 1840 in the grounds of the former Fitzroy House by the architect and developer George Basevi for his brother Nathaniel, a barrister. It has been owned by several prominent personalities including politicians Lewis McIver and Oswald Lewis, King Khalid of Saudi Arabia, and the Qatari sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. It is owned by trusts linked to the Uzbek businessman Alisher Usmanov.
Operation London Bridge was the funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II. The plan included the announcement of her death, the period of official mourning, and the details of her state funeral. The plan was created as early as the 1960s and revised many times in the years before her death in September 2022.
Sir Winston Churchill, the British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War, died on 24 January 1965, aged 90. His was the first state funeral in the United Kingdom for a non-member of the Royal Family since Edward Carson's in 1935. It was the last state funeral until Queen Elizabeth II's on 19 September 2022. The official funeral lasted for four days. Planning for the funeral, known as Operation Hope Not, began after Churchill's stroke in 1953 while in his second term as prime minister. After several revisions due to Churchill's continued survival, the plan was issued on 26 January 1965, two days after his death.
Luisa Manon Porritt is a British Liberal Democrat politician.
On 9 April 2021, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, and the longest-serving royal consort in history, died of old age at Windsor Castle at the age of 99, two months before his 100th birthday.
Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, died on 8 September 2022 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at the age of 96. Elizabeth's reign was the longest of any British monarch. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Charles III.
The Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage is a converted Ordnance, BL, 12 pdr 6 cwt, MK II, gun carriage which has been used in the UK to bear the coffin at the funeral processions of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King George VI, Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Mountbatten, and Queen Elizabeth II. It is traditionally pulled by members of the Royal Navy; when not in use, it is kept at the shore establishment HMS Excellent. A smaller version, known as the Portsmouth Gun Carriage, has been used at the ceremonial funerals of several senior naval officers in the 20th century.
The state hearse is a vehicle of the Royal Mews used for funerals of the British royal family. Based on a Jaguar XJ model, it was designed by the Royal Household and Jaguar Land Rover with the input of and approval from Elizabeth II and converted by UK-based coachbuilders Premiere Sheet Metal, while Wilcox Limousines created the interior, exterior trim and glazing. It was first used on 13 September 2022 to transport the Queen's coffin from RAF Northolt to London ahead of her lying-in-state
