Lord Carrington remembered at Westminster Abbey service

Thursday, 31st January 2019

Lord Carrington remembered at Westminster Abbey service

Her Majesty The Queen was represented by HRH The Duke of Kent at a Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of the Right Honourable the Lord Carrington KG GCMG CH MC at Westminster Abbey at Noon on Thursday 31st January 2019.

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh was represented by the Right Reverend David Conner KCVO, Dean of Windsor. HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, also representing HRH The Prince of Wales, attended the service. HRH The Duke of York was represented by The Duke of Abercorn KG; HRH The Princess Royal was represented by Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Boyce KG GCB OBE KStJ DL; and TRH The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were represented by the Right Honourable Sir John Major KG CH. The service was also attended by HRH Princess Alexandra, the Hon Lady Ogilvy.

The service was led by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, who said in his Bidding: ‘We gather in Westminster Abbey, where many men and women of distinction are buried and memorialised through the long years of our national history and international connections, to give thanks to almighty God for the life and work of Peter, Lord Carrington, who devoted so much of his long life to the service of the Crown and of the nation.

We celebrate his love of his family, his devotion to his own community in Buckinghamshire, his long public service, in the Grenadiers, as a minister, as a high commissioner, at NATO. We are inspired by his bravery and modesty and by his example of high honour and public duty.

At the start of the service, the Band of the Grenadier Guards, directed by Major Mike Smith, played Grenadiers Slow March as Lord Carrington’s orders and decorations were brought forward by Victoria Falcon, Charles de Bunsen, Francesca Carington, and Isabella Carington, and placed on the High Altar.

The Address was given by the Right Honourable the Lord Luce KG GCVO DL.

Sir David Green KCMG CVO read Ecclesiastes 12: 1–7; and the Right Honourable the Lord Heseltine CH read Revelation 21: 1–7.

The Lord Carrington DL, son, read a Tribute; and Lord Valentine Cecil said the Collect of the Grenadier Guards.

Alexandra de Bunsen, daughter, read from The Measure of a Man by Summer Sandercox; and Virginia Carington, daughter, read from Robert Louis Stevenson.

Ailish Tynan, soprano, and Marta Fontanals-Simmons, mezzo-soprano, sung Abendsegen from Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck.

Prayers were introduced by the Reverend Mark Birch, Minor Canon and Sacrist, and said by: the Right Honourable the Lord Waldegrave; Sir Antony Acland KG GCMG GCVO; Robert Carington; James de Bunsen; and the Reverend Jane Sinclair, Canon in Residence.

The service was sung by the Westminster Abbey Special Service Choir, directed by James O'Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers. The organ was played by Peter Holder, Sub-Organist, and before the service by Matthew Jorysz, Assistant Organist.


Order of Service for A Service of thanksgiving for The Right Honourable the Lord Carrington KG GCMG CH MC 6th June 1919 – 9th July 2018 (614KB)

Listen to the Address and Tribute (audio files on an external website)