Abbey honour for Sir Donald Gosling
Wednesday, 11th December 2019
A Service of Thanksgiving for the life and work of British Vice Admiral, businessman and benefactor Sir Donald Gosling KCVO was held at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday 11th December 2019.
The service was attended by TRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, TRH The Earl and Countess of Wessex, and HRH Prince Michael of Kent.
In his Bidding, the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, said:
We come together, in this holy place, to give thanks to God, as we make our memorial of Donald Gosling. We celebrate, today, a life, lived fully, generously, and joyously.
In this royal house we give honour to a man who delighted to serve the Crown. In this place of lasting memorial and monument we recall his enduring love of the Royal Navy, and his loyalty to the bonds of commitment that unite it and the traditions that sustain it.
Blessed with great gifts and the discipline to use those gifts to effect, he was a man whose consequent good fortune was shared so very generously. He was a man in whose company so many of us rejoiced and a man we held in affection. By example he directed us all to seek the common good. So, as we honour his generosity of spirit, we will commit ourselves afresh to the tasks of grace and kindness and we will pray that God will grant him joy in the company of the blessed.
At the start of the service, the White Ensign was brought forward by Petty Officer Gary Wright and placed on the High Altar by the Dean.
The Reverend Canon Roger Royle gave the Address.
Tributes were read by Jimmy Tarbuck and WO1 Nick Sharland RN.
