BRITAIN'S HEROES

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1936, Page 13

BRITAIN'S HEROES

BURIED IN ST. PAUL'S

THE MOURNING FOR NELSON

LONDON'S TRIBUTE

Earl Jellicoe has been laid for his long rest close by Nelson in the crypt of St. Paul's. Only the foot-passage used by those who make the' circuit of the basalt sarcophagus separates them (writes Walter Bell in the "Daily Telegraph"). I stood at the spot recently, amid numbers of wreaths which already had arrived. The poppies composing them flared in the crypt's subdued light, making a scarlet bank. None hereafter will have difficulty in finding the grave, for the honour was given to Nelson to occupy the central site of the vast building which spreads around him. A line dropped from the golden cross above the Dome would fall plumb upon his coffin. A little' distance apart is the dignified tomb, in Cornish porphyry, where lies Arthur Duke of Wellington. Away through the long, arched corridor may be seen darkly the huge bronze funeral car which brought the corpse of the hero of Waterloo through London streets to St. Paul's. One recalls Tennyson's Ode:— "Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore? Here, in streaming London's central roar. Let the sound of those he wrought' for, And the feet of those he fought for, Echo round his bones for evermore." NELSON HOME. As again, barriers have been erected and London's myriad populace has thronged the streets on other occasions when seamen and soldiers have been borne in public funeral to St. Paul's. Nelson comes first to mind. Although Trafalgar was fought on October 21, 1805, it was the following January 9 when the final obsequies took place, the body having been brought home by the Victory preserved in brandy. There was a lying-in-state in the Painted Chamber of Greenwich Hospital, and a procession by barge upriver to Whitehall Stairs. At the Admiralty the coffin rested for the night. London can have had little sleep that night, for thousands were upon the route before dawn. Nelson was borne upon a funeral car which rose 18ft from the ground, its ends fashioned in imitation of the stem and stern of the Victory. An Admiral of the White's flag was flown at half-staff, Britannia and Neptune with Fame were figured, and amid laurels and cyprus appeared the names of the hero's battles. The Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV) came immediately before. Six Admirals walked bearing the. canopy, and four others supported the black velvet palL In all 100 naval officers and fifty military officers, fifty clergy, and one hundred members of the two Houses of Parliament that day might' have been counted. So long was the procession, moving at a slow pace, that although its head entered St. Paul's about 2 o'clock, it was 4 before all were seated. The Cathedral had been thrown open at seven, and many persons waited throughout the hours. MEMBERS OF CREW. About sixty of the Victory's crew were in the church. All attention was ; attracted to them as they marched up. ; They bore two Union Jacks and the : St. George's Ensign of Nelson's flag- i ship, the colours perforated in many : places by the enemy's shot and the en* :

sign literally shattered. It was a day for heroic thoughts, which the newspapers did not fail to express:—

"Upon the countenance of these gallant fellows there was an eloquent expression of steadfast sorrow. Features which could never be brought or formed to express fear or any unmanly feeling seemed to be considerably softened by long-settled melancholy. These men, whom no dangers could daunt, whose nerve would stand unshaken before the most menacing terrors of death, seemed deeply deprest by the fate of their commander. Their affection was so apparent as to excite the most lively sympathy in the hearts of the spectators."

The service before the committal took a full hour, during which time the coffin was placed under the dome, raised high upon a platform, whence it was visible from all parts of the Cathedral.

The Dean of St. Paul's (who also was Bishop of Lincoln) conducted the rite, Garter King of Arms proclaimed Lord Nelson's style and titles, staves were broken and thrown into the grave, after which "the ceremony of lowering the body commenced. This ceremony proceeded very slowly. It continued for above ten minutes, and during that period the most solemn stillness prevailed. This was by far the most affecting part of the whole ceremony." LORD COLLINGWOOD. Lord Collingwood was brought to St. Paul's five years later—Nelson's second in command at Trafalgar, where in the Royal Sovereign he led one of the British lines into action, and his most intimate naval friend. "Look at Collingwood—look at Collingwood!" Nelson frequently exclaimed to his officers that day, with! the enthusiasm he always displayed in battle.- . Collingwood died on March 7,1810, when two days out of Majorca, homecoming to England. So slow were communications that it was April 17 before the intelligence was known. Collingwood's simple, manly' character wholly lacked the , ostentation which was present in Nelson, and the differences were reflected at his funeral. A State burial was given, and fifty admirals and captains who had served under Collingwood escorted the coffin, but so quiet was the service that not even a choir was there to sing. He lies near by Nelson. i This country had never seen 'so magnificent a State funeral of a subject as that of the Duke of Wellington on November 18,1852. Young admirals and generals won fame a century ago. Nelson was forty-seven when his long course of victory closed with a glorious death. Napoleon's amazing career ended at Waterloo when he was but forty-five; Wellington was himself five months older. But Wellington, unlike his great contemporaries, lived thirty-seven years after his victory. All was changed when he, too, was brought to St Paul's; a new generation was born; the age of steam had arrived. Lord Palmerston told at the time how immense was his influence:— "Old as he was, both bodily and mentally enfeebled by age, he still is a great loss to the country. His name was a tower of strength abroad, and his opinions and counsel were valuable at home. No man ever lived or died in the possession of more unanimous love, respect, and esteem from his countrymen." POMP AND CEREMONY. Funerals had greater pomp and spectacle than is considered good taste today. But it is quite a mistake to imagine that they were as well managed. While Wellington lay in state at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, several persons died from the crush when attempting to get in. At the burial in St. Paul's secular and ecclesiastical authority clashed.

No police or soldiers were present to guide or control as the first of the congregation surged in. Bewildered among corridors and staircases, one crowd fought its way forward as another struggled as fiercely to return. There was no one to give information, and people drove blindly on, then in many cases as blindly back again.

For the solemnity St. Paul's had been transformed. Deep galleries were Built in timber over the west door and in the transepts. The space under the dome was surrounded by an amphitheatre, where ranges of seats rose from the floor to a considerable height, save where a clearance waslleft to nave and choir. It was thought that Wren's Cathedral accommodated that day from 12,000 to 15,000 people, A circle of naked gas jets around the Whispering Gallery feebly contested supremacy with the natural light.

Pride of place among the military was given to surviving companions in arms of the Duke—some portly old gentlemen, others apparently : weak and feeble, but each one bearing his decorations upon his breast and holding the grey head proudly erect If there was crowding within, "it was nothing as compared' 'with the scene outside. A million and a half people were computed to have been in the streets as the stately procession wound its way from the Horse Guards via the Mall and Constitution Hill to Piccadilly, and thence down St. James's Street, to Pall Mall and the Strand and Fleet Street.;..;_ THE QUEEN WATCHES. Queen Victoria and her young children watched from Buckingham Palace the cortege go by, and as it passed Prince Albert left the Palace to take his place before the coffin. The cumbersome funeral car, which required twelve horses to draw it, sank six inches in the Mall owing to its excessive weight, but happily was extricated. . . ■ ' ; -.-■■■ More serious was the misadventure before St. Paul's. As the car's approach to the open west door was signalled clergy and choristers moved down to receive the illustrious dead, but they were forced to remain idly waiting for an hour. Within the church almost consternation prevailed^ The platform on the car which had raised'the coffin high above the heads of the street crowds had machinery to slew its burden round. This failed to work. At length the marshals of many nations who carried the Duke of Wellington's foreign batons were summoned to their stations, and the procession began to move forward, the Prince Consort entering immediately in front of the coffin. A Sword of State was borne before him. Dean Milman read the service in a clear, loud, sonorous voice. He had memories of a like great occasion, for as a schoolboy he had been present in St. Paul's at the burial of Nelson., The Dead March in "Saul" was reverberating throughout the church when Wellington's coffin slowly sank to the tomb away from the gaze of the thousands of eyes fixed upon it. ' Nelson, Collingwood, Northesk, threa of the "band of brothers" at Trafalgar—there are but three seamen to whom the tribute of a national funeral at St. Paul's has been given. Since Trafalgar Britain had engaged no naval nation in hostilities till the European War. Jellicoe joins that great company. .