3-034-725 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Funeral of Sir John Burgoyne at the Tower: the procession passing Traitors' Gate, 1871. The late Sir John Burgoyne was Constable of the Tower of London, and his body was therefore brought here for interment. 'At the entrance to the Tower eight companies of Royal Engineers, numbering 450 men, were stationed to meet the hearse, and a battalion of Fusilier Guards (with its band in the centre) lined the wharf...the Yeomen of the Guard were stationed at various points between the gates and the chapel...the open space between the summit of the steps and the chapel walls was crowded with military officers in uniform, a guard of honour of the Royal Engineers, the corps of Commissionaires, and many ladies and gentlemen. The bell of St. Peter's ad Vincula (the Tower chapel) was tolling when, at twelve o'clock, a single gun announced the arrival of the funeral procession at the gates. Its entry at the Stockade-gate, and its passage across the wharf to the eastern drawbridge, were denoted by salutes of seventeen guns (the prescribed salute at a Field Marshal's funeral). Thence entering the "inner ward," it passed the Guards' mess-house and across the parade to the front of the chapel, preceded by the bands playing the Dead March in "Saul".' From "Illustrated London News", 1871.