DEATH OF MRS. LANSBURY

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 May 1933, Page 4

DEATH OF MRS. LANSBURY

LABOUR LEADER BEREAVED

LONDON, March 25

Mrs George Lansbury, wife of the leader of the Opposition died at her home in Bow last night, at the age of 71.

Her heart had been affected by an attack of bronchitis. She was unconscious for some time before the end. Her husband, who did not attend Parliament yesterday, was at her bedside.

r During her married life, which ex--3 tended to nearly fifty-three years, Mrs t Lansbury was consistently devoted to the various causes which" her husband championed. She met her future husband at school, and, as he wrote in 1 his autobiography, “we just walked out together in September, 1875, when , she was not yet 15 and I was 16.” L Their early married life was a 1 story of hardships. Mr Lansbury was in partnership with his brother in Whitechapel unloading coal. Afterwards, for a short time he managed a coffee-stull, and then, after selling their wedding presents, they sailed for Brisbane, taking with them, their three little children. “We. had a hard life ‘down under,’ ” wrote Mr Lansbury, “and eventually got back to England again a rather sad and disillusioned pair. Our house in Bow was a. four-roomed cottage. Our family ran up to six, so we were a bit crowded. My wages were 30/- a week. How my wife managed to feed and clothe us all I don’t know, except that she worked early and late at her job. “We walked the streets of London by night, talking and dreaming together of a future in which the world 1 of man would be a world of beauty, I love and joy. Many of our dreams have come true.” Mr and Mrs Lansbury had a family of four sons and eight daughters. There are twenty-three grandchildren. Among the many congratulations which they received on the occasion of their golden wedding was a message from the King and Queen. Mr George Lansbury yesterday received the following letter, signed by Sir Clive Wigram, the King's Private Secretary, conveying the sympathy of their Majesties on the death of his wife. ( I! UCKINGIiAiM PALACE, March .”1, 1933. ti Dear Mr Lansbury.—lt is with much I; regret that the King and Queen havej; learnt of the death of Mrs Lansbury, ; titid their Majesties wish me to as- ( sure you that you have their true sym- i pathy in your great sorrow. t Their Majesties realise what this f loss will mean to you ami your sons * and daughters in the breaking up of your happy family life of more than 1 half a century.—- ' Yours sincerely, * CLIVE WIG RAM. (

WEDDING MARCH AT FUNERAL. LONDON. Mareh 2S. At. the little parish church of St. Mary, Bow, where the funeral service for- Mrs Lansbury was read yesterday, there was no mournful Dead March, playing as the aged leader of Hie- Opposition and his family entered. Instead, a. few minutes before, tho organ had pealed out a thunderous welcome full of hope, and. as it continued, it slowly dawned on the waiting throng that it was Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.” This, with the playing of (he “Hallelujah Chorus” at the close of the service, testified to Mr Lansbury’s desire to banish gloom and sombreness from the funeral of the woman ho had loved since she was a child of 15. The hymns, also of Mr Lansbury’s

choice- were “O Love That wilt not let me go,” “O Perfect Love, all human thought transcending,” and “The Day Thou Gavest Lord, is ended,” and the passages of Scripture read were those beginning: ’ • “Though I speak with tongues of men and angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” Finally, there was Robert Louis Stevenson’s beautiful prayer, very rarely heard at a. funeral service, Which, beginning “Lord behold our family here assembled,” gives thanks.

“For the love that unites us; for the peace accorded to us this day, and tor the hope with -which we expect the morrow-.”

The service was taken by the rector, the Rev, G. F. J. Ansell, and the rector of Poplar, the Rev. H. Greatbatch. The church was packed, and places had to be kept for Mr' Lansbury and his family and friends. The cremation took place at Ilford. The people of Bow had gathered in their hundreds to pay their last tribute to Mrs Lansbury, so many years of w’hose married life had been spent in their midst. Near the church, which stands -an island in a sea. of traffic, the crowds were seven or eight deep. As the cortege came into view in the brilliant sunshine it was seen that the motor-hearse and three of the following cars were masses of manyhued flowers. The purple-draped coffin, too, was almost invisible beneath its wealth of primroses, daffodils, tulips, carnations, lilies of the valley, and violets.