Seven surviving prime ministers bid farewell at Queen’s funeralon September 19, 2022 at 5:10 pm

The UK’s seven surviving prime ministers attended Westminster Abbey to bid farewell to the Queen.

Current Prime Minister Liz Truss was joined by Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Sir Tony Blair, and Sir John Major.

All seven were pictured seated alongside one another at the funeral with their spouses.

The Queen’s reign spanned the tenure of 15 prime ministers in total, the first of which was Sir Winston Churchill.

Among her last acts was to accept the resignation of Mr Johnson and invite Ms Truss to form a government.

In a tribute following the Queen’s death, Ms Truss described her as the “rock on which modern Britain was built” and said her “devotion to duty remains an example to us all”.

The service saw Ms Truss deliver a Bible reading, John 14:2, which recounts Jesus’s farewell address to his disciples at the last supper.

“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you,” it reads.

Sir Tony and Sir John could both be seen wearing their stars of the Order of the Garter, the most senior form of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross.

As members of the Privy Council, all seven prime ministers also appeared at the Accession Council ceremony, at which the King was formally proclaimed Britain’s monarch, at St James’s Palace last week.

Each of them will have spent considerable amounts of time in the Queen’s company during their periods in office.

Throughout her reign, the Queen held weekly private audiences with the prime minister of the day, and would also often invite them to visit her at Balmoral Castle during her summer breaks on the estate.

Paying tribute after her death, Mr Brown recalled the Queen’s generosity as a host.

“She made you feel at home by bringing other guests that she knew you would like,” he said. “There was a book in your room that she had chosen specially from her library for you to read.

“That was the kindness and generosity and the considerate nature that she had.”

Speaking during celebrations to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee earlier this year, Mr Cameron said his time as prime minister had offered “no finer moment than each week having the almost unique ability to sit down, in private, with Her Majesty and being able to call on her sage advice and wise counsel”.

The service was also attended by hundreds of world leaders and foreign dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and heads of government from across the Commonwealth.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby delivered a sermon in which he reflected on the nature of public service and leadership.

“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life,” he said. “Leaders of loving service are still rarer.

“But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten.”