SOLEMN SCENES

Northern Advocate, 6 February 1928, Page 5

SOLEMN SCENES

MARK MIDNIGHT HOUR

EARL HAIG FUNERAL RITES.

GRIEF-STRICKEN SCOTS,

(United Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, February 4,

Troops lining the route of the Haig funeral cortege in London leaned upon their rifles with bowed heads.

For the most part the journey to Westminster Abbey was covered at a quick march, owing to the distance, but from the Abbey the funeral was accorded the impressive, time-honour-ed Army ritual.

- The coffin was borne to the funeral van at Waterloo Station by eight Scots, under a sergeant.

The Princes entered the van and gave the Empire’s farewell salute, and the train started quietly. The Princes and pall-bearers saluted and a band played Chopin’s Funeral March. Two carriages were filled with wreaths.. There were unforgettable scenes at midnight when the body of Earl Haig was conveyed through the streets of his native city of Edinburgh to St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will lie in state until Tuesday. Despite the late hour and the piercing cold wind, people of all ages and classes made the pilgrimage to Princes Street Station and waited in the frost covered streets.

The approaches to the station were impassable when the special train arrived at 12.7 o’clock this morning. Eight artillerymen bore the coffin to the gun-carriage. Pipers played “Flowers of the Forest,” and the procession was headed by a battalion of Scots Greys to the Cathedral.

After the service at St. Giles’ Cathedral on Tuesday, Earl Haig’s coffin will be entrained, to St. Boswell’s, where it will be placed on a farm cart and escorted by Bermersyde employees along the flve miles of route to Dryburgh Abbey, where a non-military service will be held.

MUNIFICENT GIFT,

DANISH APPRECIATION,

(Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, February 5,

It is estimated that 150,000 men and Women passed through St. Giles’ Cathedral yesterday. The lying in state continues this afternoon and throughout Monday. Dame P. K, Keilberg, who is the wife of an Englishman, has sent £IO,OOO to the British Legion Appeal Fund in appreciation of the services of Earl Haig and his armies in helping Denmark to recover the Danish portion of Schleswig.—A. and N.Z.

WAR DIARY.

SEALED UNTIL 1940,

(Received 9 a.m.) LONDON, February 4

The “Daily Express” reveals that Earl Hadg, shortly before his death, deposited his diary of the war years with the Trustees of the British Museum, with the proviso that the seals on the manuscript, which is now in the strong-room, must remain unbroken until 1940.

The diary -is frank and fearless, but the contents are known only to one intimate friend outside the family circle. He is a famous racing peer.— A. and N.Z.