R.l0l BURIALS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1930, Page 6

R.lol BURIALS

THE LYING-IN-STATE

VAST CROWDS AT WESTMINISTER

(United Press Association—By Electric

Telegraph.—Copyright.)

LONDON, October 10. The lying-in-state at Westminister Hall of the RlOl victims has attracted crowds to the Hall so great that authorities are extending the opening of the Hall to midnight to-night (Friday) and may further extend the opening as hundreds on Friday night were still joining the queues, which are reaching to Vauxliall Bridge. Ten thousand people are filling by every hour. Meanwhile the grave diggers are completing a grave at Cai'dingjton thirty feet square. NEARLY 90,000. VISIT WESTMINISTER HALL. LONDON, October 11. lir! connection with* the lying-in-state of t e airship - victims, the doors of Westminster Hall were closed at 12.35 this (Saturday) morning. It was officially stated the total day’s admissions numbered 89,893. PROCESSION THROUGH LONDON. A SAD SPECTACLE. LONDON, October 11. Victims of the airship 11101 commenced their last journey oil a sunny autumn morning, the cortege making slow progress through crowded London streets. Indeed two hours -was taken to cover a comparatively short distance between Westminister Hall and Euston Station, where the bodies were entrained for Bedford in five coaches, draped with purple. Two hundred relatives and official mourners travelled in the same special train. The traffic was diverged - from . t e busy streets through which the cortege passed, heightening the impressiveness and sadness of the spectacle,- . Each coffin was covered,with,,a Union jack, and placed on a separate waggon, ’ , M i .. .. . In the procession there were the Air Force, Grenadier Guards, detachments of the. Air Force, Welsh Guards, and Royal Marine Bands. ~ 'Mr Ramsay MacDonald, Cabinet members, many representatives of British and foreign aeronautical organisations, and high officers in glittering full-dress uniforms marched 'in the Procession. , • .

Mr Scullin, Australian Prime Minister, Mr Moloney, and Mr Brennan (Australian Ministers) joined the cortege in motor, and Mr G. W- Forbes represented New Zealand. N.Z. WREATH. LONDON, October, 11. . Hon. G. W. Forbes sent a wreath to the 11101 victims’ ■ funeral'-on;;be : half of New Zealand. CROWD OF 75,000. MOVING SCENE AT CARDINGTON.

LONDON, October 11

The funeral train; hearing the 11101 victims from Euston Station to Cardington to-day also carried a great company of relatives (arid others, to whom the last sounds, as; the station receded - from view, wrire (the strains of the “Rock of Ages” played by the Royal Air Force Bn lid, ’while Mr Ramsay MacDonald, the Prime Minister, other members of the (Cabinet and foreign representatives, including Captain Eekener of the Graf Zeppelin, were standing on the platform with lowered heads. i .;(• 4

Everywhere along the route, there were signs of mourning. The train was met at Redford by Lord Ainpthill and the Mayor. A great assembly of bombers circled overhead while the coffins ' were removed from the train, and a procession was being formed. It is estimated that seventy-five thousand people were on the roadside between the station and the little cemetery at Cardington, four miles away, within sight of the Aerodrome whence the victims had set out with high hopes exactly one week ago. The coffins were borne by the fleet of R.A.F. tenders. The mourners were grouped round the huge common grave in St. Mark’s Churchyard, which was flanked ,by a blue-clad crew of RlOl, in front of which stood Bill the sole’representative of the RlOl survivors, bearing’: a wreath from the comrades.

The scene here will never he forgotton by those who witnessed it. One by one, the caskets were lowered into the great grave, in four rows of twelve, while the church bells were tolling and aeroplanes were droning overhead, and men and women were sobbing. A simple, beautiful service followed the Church of England, Presbyterian, Methodist and Roman Catholic Clergy stepping forward in their turn and engaging in prayers. Finally, as the last, raya;|«f the setting sun- illumined the scene, there came dramatic moments while three volleys were -fired and the trumpeters sounded “The Last Post”. There was

a brief silence, and from a neighbouring field “the Revielle” rang out. The men in RlOl had come home. Then as flowers were heaped into the grave till it was nearly full, women, and even men, gave way to grief unrestrained. The wreaths included one from the Anzac Fellowship and one from the Women of Australia. The “Sunday Dispatch” says that since the wreck of RlOl, the Recruiting Department lias been overworked in coping with a rush of recruits lor the Air Force.