The Queen has led mourners in St Paul’s Cathedral at the funeral of Baroness Thatcher, Britain’s longest serving prime minister of modern times.
More than 2,000 guests from around the world paid their last respects at the biggest such occasion since the Queen Mother’s funeral in 2002.
Thousands of members of the public and the armed forces lined the funeral procession route through London.
PM David Cameron said it was a “fitting tribute” to a major figure.
Four thousand police officers were on duty in central London but, despite concerns about demonstrations, only a small number of protesters voiced their opposition to Lady Thatcher’s policies and there were no arrests.
Elsewhere, around the country:
- Residents of a South Yorkshire village scarred by pit closures”celebrated” her funeral
- Miners in a former pit village in County Durham gathered during the funeral, exactly 20 years after their pit’s closure
- A rose was unveiled in memory of Baroness Thatcher in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where she was born
- Students at Somerville, Lady Thatcher’s former Oxford University college, gathered to watch the funeral
- Self-styled “Essex Man” Bill Sharp witnessed Baroness Thatcher’s funeral procession
The congregation at St Paul’s included Lady Thatcher’s family and all surviving British prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Sir John Major, the current cabinet and surviving members of Lady Thatcher’s governments.
There were tears, and occasional laughter, as the Bishop of London, The Right Reverend Richard Chartres, paid tribute to Lady Thatcher’s forthright character in a simple service, which, at her personal request, did not include any eulogies.
