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Thomas Hardy Memorial Service 2026
On Saturday 10th January it was the annual service of remembrance for the poet and novelist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey . This particular event commemorates the death of Hardy on 11th January 1928.>
Hardy’s funeral was a dual event with his ashes interred at Westminster Abbey and his heart buried at Stinsford . The attendees in London in 1928 included Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, J.M. Barrie, A.E.Housman and the Prime Minster Ramsay MacDonald.The casket for Hardy contained his ashes and some Wessex earth.
At the ceremony in 2026, the Reverend Mark Birch, Canon in Residence, led the service with readings from Mark Damon Chutter, Sue Clarke and Rebecca Shipp. The Chairman and Academic Director of the Thomas Hardy Society, Mark Damon Chutter, said "the service was such a poignant reminder of the importance and relevance of Hardy’s work and how he represented the Dorset landscape and community". Mark Damon Chutter then laid the wreath for Hardy which was created by Shirley Churchill and made of Stinsford Yew.
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