Lord Heywood

In the east cloister of Westminster Abbey is the grave of Lord Heywood of Whitehall GCB, CVO, civil servant. His ashes were buried on 7th February 2020.

The inscription reads:

JEREMY JOHN HEYWOOD 1961-2018 Cabinet Secretary 2012-2018

He was born on 31st December 1961 in Glossop, Derbyshire, son of teacher Peter Heywood and his wife Brenda (Swinbank). He was educated at a private Quaker school in York and studied at Oxford university. His first job as a civil servant was at the Health and Safety Executive in Whitehall, moving quickly on to the Treasury (where he made savage cuts to the department) and becoming private secretary to Norman Lamont and then to Kenneth Clarke. In 1999 he was appointed principal private secretary to the Prime Minister and worked closely as advisor to four of them. In 2012 he was knighted and became cabinet secretary, combining the role with the head of the civil service in 2014. He married fellow civil servant Suzanne Cook and they had two sons and a daughter.

He died of cancer on 4th November 2018. His funeral took place in the Lady Chapel, the chapel of the Order of the Bath to which he belonged, on 23rd November 2018 and a memorial service was held in the Abbey on 20th June 2019.