1852

The state funeral of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) was the first large-scale service of its kind to take place under the dome of the cathedral. The building was closed for almost six weeks, whilst extra tiers of seating and grandstands were erected in the aisles and transepts in preparation for the 13,000 attending; heavy black cloth was hung at the windows; daylight was virtually excluded, the dome being illuminated only by a corona of gas lights under the Whispering Gallery. Members of government and university predominated in the congregation.

The choir was augmented for the occasion to 80 men and 40 boys with 40 additional singers and instrumental performers; the organist, John Goss, composed music to mark the occasion. The start of the Prayer Book burial service was delayed by almost an hour on account of the late arrival of the coffin; the end was marked with the lowering of the Duke's coffin through the floor of the cathedral into the crypt. Wellington's tomb with its sarcophagus of Cornish porphyry was not finished for another five years. The twelve-ton funeral carriage which carried the coffin, together with model horses, was re-erected at the west end of the Crypt in 1855; it remained on view at the cathedral until the early 1980s when it was removed to Stratfield Saye (the family seat). A miniature, paper model is still on display in the cathedral Library.