Ticket ballot opens for Stephen Hawking Memorial Service

Applications can be made via the Stephen Hawking foundation website. The ballot closes on Tuesday 15th May at midnight GMT.

His three children, Robert, Lucy and Tim are offering tickets for the service to the public through the ballot system, run by the Stephen Hawking Foundation. The Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, has also decided to open the Abbey free of charge following the service so that people can pay their respects at Professor Hawking’s grave.

The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said:

The Service of Thanksgiving for the Life and Work of Stephen Hawking will celebrate not only his remarkable achievements as a scientist but also his character and endurance through his years living with a devastating illness.

Lucy Hawking said;

We are so grateful to Westminster Abbey for offering us the privilege of a Service of Thanksgiving for the extraordinary life of our father and for giving him such a distinguished final resting place. We are also very pleased to be able to offer tickets to the public so that our father’s many admirers will have the chance to join in the Service.

The service will be attended by Professor Hawking’s family, friends, colleagues, academics and school children. His ashes will be interred between the graves of Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

Professor Stephen Hawking, who died aged 76 on 14th March this year, was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and was regarded as one of the world’s most brilliant theoretical physicists. 

The Stephen Hawking Foundation exists to continue the work, aims and endeavours of Professor Stephen Hawking. For more information on the aims and objectives of the Foundation, visit their website.