Bells muffled for General

Press, 12 July 1979, Page 4

Bells muffled for General

Muffled bells will ring from Christchurch Cathedral before the full military funeral service for MajorGeneral G. B. Parkinson starts at 2 p.m. today.

The service will be conducted by Chaplain M. H. Brown, of the Territorial Force in Christchurch. The eulogy will be given by Major-General Sir William Gentry, a former Chief of the General Staff; and the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt Rev. W. A. Pyatt) who served under General Parkinson in Italy, will give the blessing. After the 25-minute service, the funeral cortege will form up in front of the Cathedral. The gun carriage on which the coffin will be placed will be flanked by a guard of honour of 100 men from Burnham Camp, under Major P. Koorey. The guard will include soldiers from all corps of the Army. The pall bearers will include two generals and six brigadiers, under Lieutenant-

General Sir Leonard Thornton; and the bearer party will be eight senior warrant officers of the Royal New Zealand Artillery. The coffin will be placed on the gun carriage and on top of it will be displayed General Parkinson’S ceremonial dress sword and cap. The gun carriage will be followed by an ensign bearer, a young officer carrying General Parkinson’s decorations and medals.

Led by the New Zealand Army Band, the cortege will slow-march to the beat of muffled drums from the Cathedral round the southeastern comer of Cathedral Square to Worcester Street and through Latimer Square to Barbadoes Street.

From there the party wall be driven to the Ruru Lawn Cemetery. At the cemetery, the cortege will reform and slow-march to the graveside for another brief ceremony, after which Last Post will be sounded and the guard of honour will fire three volleys.