HUNDREDS OF mourners attending the funeral service in London yesterday of Lady Miranda Guinness were told that she had borne her final illness with “courage and bravery”.
The service in St George’s Church in Hanover Square, which she had had organised in her final months, was conducted by the Ven David Pierpoint, Archdeacon of Dublin, assisted by the Rev Roderick Leece.
The many friends who attended the service included Galen and Hilary Weston; Harry Byrne, Fred Stevens and Gene Clayton of the Iveagh Trust; John Kennedy of Diageo Ireland; John Redmill of the Irish Georgian Society and Paul Carty of the Guinness Storehouse.
She died, aged 70, shortly after Christmas at her Wiltshire home surrounded by four children, Edward, Rory, Emma and Louisa, and close friends, the archdeacon told the crowded congregation.
“She was determined to see Christmas through with her family, even though she knew she was dying.
“When anyone was in difficulty or ill-health, she was there with comforting words and many experienced that great wealth of friendship,” he continued.
“The way in which she was unafraid of death and prepared to die will help us to come to terms with her death,” said the archdeacon, who was a close friend of Lady Guinness for many decades.
The service was attended by the Earl and Countess of Iveagh, the Hon Rory and Mrs Guinness, Lady Emma and James Barnard and Lady Louisa Uloth and Rupert Uloth. Also there were her grandchildren Viscount Elveden and Rupert Guinness, Aoife and Beatrice Guinness, Benjamin and Arthur Barnard, Honor, Nonie and Rufus Uloth; her brothers and sister-in- law James Smiley and Mr and Mrs Andrew Smiley; her nieces Sarah and Charlotte Smiley, and her aunt, Lady Gibson.
The Duke of Kent; Irish Deputy Ambassador to London, Barbara Jones; Benjamin Collins; Princess Salimah Aga Khan, the Duchess of Grafton; the Marquis of Londonderry; the Marchioness of Dufferin; Ava, the Duchess of Abercorn; Viscount and Viscountess Cowdray and Teresa Stopford Sackville also attended.
Her coffin was draped in a bouquet of cream roses and lilies, while a choir sang a number of hymns, including O Christ The Same, Through All Our Story's Pagesto the tune of the Derry Air.