Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate, died on 6 October 1892 at his home in Haslemere. On October 11 the coffin was brought to the Abbey and lay overnight in St Faith’s chapel (just off the south transept). The chapel was hung with purple and the Union Flag covered the coffin. The next day the funeral was attended by thousands of mourners. The Abbey organist, Frederick Bridge, set to music words from Tennyson’s ‘Crossing the Bar’. Lady Tennyson wrote the music for her husband’s last poem ‘The Silent Voices’, which was sung by the choir prior to the burial. The poet was laid between the graves of John Dryden and Robert Browning, and in front of Chaucer’s monument. The hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty” followed and the Dead March in Saul was played at the conclusion of the service. The grave was then covered by a pall, with a design of trailing roses, handmade in Keswick. The gravestone simply reads:

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON. BORN AUGUST 6 1809. DIED OCTOBER 6 1892.

In 1895 a bust of the poet, by Thomas Woolner, was placed on a pillar nearby. It had been made in 1857 and was the gift of Mr Jenner.

Alfred was born at Somersby in Lincolnshire, the fourth of many children of the Revd. Dr George Tennyson and Elizabeth (Fytche). He was educated at Louth and Trinity College, Cambridge. In Memoriam was written on the death of his friend Arthur Hallam. His ‘Morte d’Arthur’ and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ are well-known. In 1850 he married Emily Sellwood (1813-1896). Their sons were Lionel and Hallam (1852-1928). Queen Victoria appointed him Poet Laureate in 1850 and in 1883 he was created Lord Tennyson.

A photo of the grave and the bust can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library.

© Dean and Chapter of Westminster 2005

“Alfred, Lord Tennyson: A Memoir” by Hallam Tennyson, 1897.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for the Tennyson family.

See also the website of The Tennyson Society.