11th January 1928 - A Dark Day

Shortly after helping to excavate the Fordington mosaic, Hardy became ill with pleurisy in December 1927 and died at Max Gate just after 9 pm on 11th January 1928, having dictated his final poem to his wife on his deathbed; the cause of death was cited, on his death certificate, as "cardiac syncope", with "old age" given as a contributory factor.

Thomas Hardy's death on this dark day in 1928 solidified his legacy as a literary giant, sparking widespread tributes. Writers such as Virginia Woolf hailed him as a "king" of English fiction, emphasizing his profound impact on contemporary literature. His burial in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, alongside literary greats, marked his official recognition as a national treasure and nearly a century later, his works remain widely read, studied, and available, showing his lasting relevance. In essence, Hardy's death marked the end of a literary era, but also highlighted the enduring power of his themes, securing his place as a foundational figure in English literature.

The ashes of Thomas Hardy were buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey on 16th January 1928. The chief mourners were his widow Florence, his sister, the Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Rudyard Kipling, Sir James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw and A.E.Housman.

The casket had lain in St Faith’s Chapel prior to the service. The grave was lined with purple and the Dean of Westminster sprinkled a handful of earth on the casket during the service (the earth from his beloved Stinsford). The simple inscription reads:

THOMAS HARDY O.M. 1840-1928

The burial at Westminster Abbey was controversial. Hardy had wished for his body to be interred at Stinsford in the same grave as his first wife, Emma. His family and friends concurred; however, his executor, Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, insisted that he be placed in the abbey's famous Poets' Corner. A compromise was reached whereby his heart was buried at Stinsford with Emma, and his ashes in Poets' Corner. Hardy's estate at death was valued at £95,418 (equivalent to £7,300,000 in 2023).

The below is the front page of the Dorset Daily Echo the day after Hardy's death speculating on where the burial would take place.

LONDON, Jan. 14. - The body of Thomas Hardy, with the exception of his heart, which is to be buried in the little Dorset churchyard of Stinsford, his birthplace, was taken today from his home, Max Gate, in Dorchester, to Woking and cremated. The ashes now rest in a bronze urn at Sir James Barrie's apartment in 1 Adelphi Terrace, London. They will be conveyed to Westminster Abbey at 2 o'clock on Monday, to be buried in Poets' Corner, near the graves of Dickens, David Garrick and Samuel Johnson. England's great men will bear Hardy's ashes for interment among her great men of the past. The pallbearers at the Abbey funeral will be Prime Minister Baldwin and former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, Rudyard Kipling and Sir James Barrie, Bernard Shaw and John Galsworthy, Sir Edmund Goss, and Professor A. E. Housman, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and A. B. Ramsay and E. D. Walker of Oxford, the latter Provost of Queens' College.

Body Taken Away at Daybreak.

Hardy's body was taken from his Wessex home at daybreak. Those who saw the hearse pass were, for the most part, Hardy's neighbors, simple country folk, who had known the great man of literature as plain "Tom." As the mourners were assembling the moon still shone faintly and a light wind rustled through the branches as it came through the woods, the scene of Hardy's rambles for half a century.

Then as the sun came, it brought incongruously in its train a group of black-garbed pallbearers behind a motor hearse. A few minutes after 8 o'clock the door opened to frame the frail form and tear-stained face of Mrs. Hardy, and there was placed in the hearse a plain coffin, inscribed: "Thomas Hardy, born June 20, 1840; died January 11, 1928." On the coffin was placed a handful of narcissi and a beautiful wreath of arum lilies and lilies of the valley. They were from Mrs. Hardy and bore the message: "To My Darling. From His Wife."

Widow Watches From Door.

The hearse rumbled away through the garden to the high road, watched to the last by Mrs. Hardy, a dark figure of sorrow. Slowly it passed through village after village enshrined forever between the pages of Hardy's works—Stinsford, Mellstock, Dorchester, Casterbridge, Puddleton, Weatherbury, Ter Rigis, Kingsbere, and finally Winchester—"Wintoncester," where Tess ended her tragic life on the scaffold and where the body of Tess's creator passed forever beyond the confines of the Wessex that he loved.

The creation scene was of stark simplicity. The conversion of the body to ashes was accomplished in a few minutes, no religious ceremony being performed. The mourners were Sir James Barrie and Lennox Gilmour.

Three services will take place simultaneously on Monday afternoon - the burial of Hardy's ashes in Westminster Abbey, the burial of his heart at Stinsford and a memorial service in St. Peter's Church, Dorchester. At the request of the Mayor all of Dorchester's shops will be closed between 2 and 3 o'clock. Mrs. Hardy will be present at the national tribute to her husband in London, but Hardy's brother and sister, Henry and Kate, and his aged cousin, Miss Theresa Hardy, will attend the service at Stinsford. There Hardy's heart, in a bronze coffin, will be buried in the grave of his first wife beneath the branches of an old yew tree, where are the graves also of his father, mother, a sister and grandparents. It will be a simple village burial among the villagers he loved.

Body Taken Away at Daybreak.

Widow Watches From Door.

Read the full New York Times article

Thomas Hardy Funeral at Stinsford (Video - 1928)