Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Queen Elizabeth will be among the mourners at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, which has been scheduled for April 17.
Andrew MacDougall, the prime minister’s spokesperson, said in a tweet that former prime minister Brian Mulroney has also been invited to attend as part of the Canadian delegation.
Earlier Tuesday, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen will be accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh. The last funeral for a former prime minister that the Queen attended was for Winston Churchill in 1965.
While Churchill’s was a state funeral, Thatcher’s service is not, but will instead include full military honours. The funeral will be at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
State funerals for British prime ministers are rare, and require a vote in Parliament.
The night before the service, Thatcher’s coffin will lie in the Houses of Parliament before being taken to the church of St. Clement Danes. A horse-drawn carriage will then carry Thatcher’s casket to St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The funeral, which will be televised, will be followed by a private cremation service.
The early funeral details were revealed as Thatcher’s body was removed Tuesday from London’s Ritz Hotel, where she died Monday after suffering a stroke. She was 87.
Following the news of Thatcher’s death, world leaders paid tribute to the woman who led Britain from 1979 to 1990 and presided over a new age of Conservatism for which she was both admired and reviled.
In a statement, Harper said Monday that "the world has lost a giant among leaders."
“While many in positions of power are defined by the times in which they govern, Margaret Thatcher had that rarest of abilities to herself personify and define the age in which she served. Indeed, with the success of her economic policies, she defined contemporary conservatism itself.
"I recall with pride her eloquent portrayal of the philosophical groundings of the principles that have -- and I hope forever will -- unite the British and Canadian peoples."
Mulroney fondly remembered Thatcher for transforming Britain from “the sick man of Europe” into an economic power. Mulroney recalled that although the two didn’t see eye-to-eye on every issue, including imposing sanctions on South Africa’s apartheid regime, he modelled his government’s economic reforms on Thatcher’s policies. As well, they enjoyed a close friendship.
“Apart from being a superb and strong leader, she was also in private a very charming and polite and respectful and enjoyable friend,” Mulroney told CTV’s Power Play on Monday.
Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, became known as the Iron Lady as she took on difficult issues with a strength of conviction that at times alienated some of her opponents.
Her push to privatize state industries led to fierce battles with labour unions, and she went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands in a battle that killed hundreds of Argentines and 225 British military personnel.
In 1990, it was her strong will that cost her the Conservative leadership. Despite protests from other Tory ministers, she refused to budge on Britain’s involvement with the European Union. Michael Heseltine challenged her leadership, and Thatcher was forced to resign when it became obvious she had lost the confidence of her party.
Thatcher’s health had been in decline in recent years, and the last decade had been a particularly difficult one for her. She suffered a stroke in 2002, and her husband, Sir Denis, died in 2003. She had also been suffering from dementia, which led to a retreat from public life.
