Funeral Service: Sir Roger Scruton

The funeral of Sir Roger Scruton, philosopher, writer, aesthetician, composer, novelist, oenophile and rider to hounds, took place at Malmesbury Abbey on 24th January 2020.

Michael Gove represented the Government. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, attended in a personal capacity and Lord Chartres, the former Bishop of London, also came.

After the welcome by Rev Oliver Ross, Scruton’s son, Sam Scruton, read from John 1:1-5 and 9-14. Following the opening prayer by the Rev Steve Wilkinson, the congregation sang Angel Voices Ever Singing. Scruton’s daughter,

Lucy Scruton, and Professor Robert Grant read Hardy’s poem The Darkling Thrush.

Professor Grant’s tribute covered their 40 years of friendship. He remembered how they had both attended an auction of farm equipment, where they overheard a man say of an old tractor, ‘I don’t think much of he!’ That led, as Grant said, ‘to a typically Scrutonian disquisition on the local dialect’. On another occasion, Scruton was visiting Grant by the coast and swam so far out to sea that he became a mere dot. When he returned, Grant expressed surprise. ‘One must practise one’s strokes,’ Scruton explained. ‘It had never occurred to the rest of us to practise swimming much after learning it,’ said Grant.

Music included a song by Janáček – Láska from Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs – and Schubert’s Ave Maria. Hymns were Come Down, O Love Divine, Psalm 23 and All Creatures of Our God and King. Samuel Hughes read from T S Eliot’s Little Gidding. Dr Jane Briggs gave an address as vicar of All Saints, Garsdon, where Scruton was organist. DAVID OLDROYD-BOLT