LORD FISHER'S FUNERAL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10688, 7 September 1920, Page 6

LORD FISHER'S FUNERAL

IMPRESSIVE ABBEY SCENE

DOMINION'S .GOVERNOR-ELECT AMONG PALL-BEAKERS. NATION'S TRIBUTE TO GREAT SAILOR. LONDON, July 14. New Zealand's Governor-elect, Admiral Viscount Jellicoe, acted as one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of Lord Fisher at Westminster Abbey. Of the impressive ceremony Hugh Martin writes in the "Daily Newa": — It is not difficult to imagine Lord Fisher reporting his own funeral with gusto. His pen would have heen adequate; few others can Jjope to be so. Only a few week* ago ho haa brushed past me, gorgeouely attired as a Knight ■of the Bath, at this very spot in Westminster Abbey, and I had marvelled at the rugged, forceful style of ,the man, which no clothes could conceal." Now, as I looked }at the Union Jack, which covered all that was left of him, lying there quietly among the lighted candles; as I heard the soft organ not*.s, as 1 saw men Betting their faces hard to keep back the tears, as I caught the chanted whisper of the Opening Sentences, I thought of a sea chanty set 'to the musio of an anthem. What had this Old Testament seen, this pontifical man of war, to do with bo gentle and pathetio a % farewell ? More, perhaps, 'than we think. Yet I wanted to hear the wind and tho waves heating round that coffin. I wanted guns to fire the last salute. CROWDED ABBEY. The Abbey has never seemed so peaceful, though it was crowded in every corner. Those who. came early filled the nave, sitting sideways to face the procession as it came up from the west door. Later arrivals poured into the transepts, where Mndreds stood as well as sat. Service men in uniform, of whom'there, were large numbers, were given special places, but "very few tickets had been issued, and the great mass of mourners were simply ordinary citizens. ■ Young naval officers, graceful figures in the handsomest, of all uniforms, acted as ushfirs. The flickering sunshine of typical English weather —one might. almost call it 'sea weather"—fell through tho painted windows upon the monuments to many a dead sea captain, upon an altar hung with purple and upon a vacant bier. Six bluejackets W© the coffin on their shoulder ß from the West door to this bier, with its six tall candles. ,VVe know they had.passed between great silent crowds lining,the rout© all ■. the wav from St- James's square, and that with them had marched a hundred seamen and a hundred Royal Marines. ADMIRALS AS PALL-BEARERS. Eight Admirals —Jellicoe, Jackson, King-Hall, Thursby, Henderson, Bridgman, Bacon and Moore—were the pallbearers. " Then came a long line of mourners. I particularly noticed four figures having special ...interest, owing to their .personal' .association with the dead sailor—those of Mr Reginald Mclienna, Lord Esher, Mr John Burns, and Sir William Watson. The family mourners were the Hon. Cecil Vavasseur Fisher ("son), Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Blackett, and the Hon. Mrs Blackett (daughter), Captain Erio J.#A. Fullerton and the Hon. Mrs Fullerton (daughter), and RearAdmiral Reginald Neeld and tho Hon. Mrs Neeld (daughter). . An Admiral's hat and one tiny wreath lay on the coffin. But as it came to rest on the bier, Lord Fisher's medals and, other decorations were added. TOUCHING MUSIC. The music was exquisite and deeply touching Both the hymus chosen by the family—" For all tho Saints" and "Now the Labourer's Task is O'er were sung softly and. with an infinitely tender dwelling upon the peace that follows battle. To sing thus around the- body of one who surely never longed for rest was to know, indeed, that men are "even as a. sleep and fade away suddenly like the grass. Sullivan's anthem, "Yea,. Though I Walk Through the Valley of the fahadow of Death," followed the lesson, and after the Blessing, tho band of the Marines played the Dead March in "Saul." It was, again, a singularly gentle and plaintive rendering, with no attempt at shattering drum-music, or at any rate seemed so in the choir, the hand being below the choir screen Those accustomed to the richer effect of funeral music in St. Paul's must have boen struck by the difference. THE LAST POST*

Then the Last Post was sounded from somewhere behind the altar, the epauletted Admirals stood at attention, their eyes fixed upon the liagcoffin, their .faces betrayingemotion only by motionless As the last high note died away we others bowed our heads m homage to the memory .or" a very brave and brilliant sailor.