George HW Bush funeral: Former president flown to Texas after moving eulogies at National Cathedral

Follow latest updates as mourners arrive to pay tribute to the former president

Former US President George Bush Sr diesaged 94

George HW Bush, the 41st president of the United States, is being honoured in a funeral service at Washington National Cathedral today following three days of mourning in which his body lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda.

The Texas Republican, an ex-oil executive who served in the Oval Office between 1988 and 1992 having previously been Ronald Reagan's vice-president and CIA director, oversaw the post-Cold War transition and led a successful Gulf War in Iraq.

The four living ex-presidents - Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Bush's son George W Bush and Barack Obama - are in attendance at the service, with George W Bush giving an emotional eulogy where he called his father "wonderful".

Current President Donald Trump sat in the front row with the Obamas, Clintons and Mr Carter.

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Key Points

• President Trump says service is 'celebration for a great man'
• George Bush delivers moving eulogy for father: ‘The best father a son or daughter could ever have’
• Donald Trump avoids greeting the Clintons but shakes hands with the Obamas
• Casket to be transferred to St Martin's Episcopal Church in Texas after state service

[5 December 2018 14:00 · Chris Stevenson]

Donald Trump has tweeted about the funeral service. He says he is "looking forward" to a "celebration for a great man".

 

[5 December 2018 14:10 · Chris Stevenson]

Until this morning, queues of people lined up to pay their respects to Mr Bush.

"He was so qualified, and I think he was just a decent man," said Sharon Terry, touring Washington with friends from an Indianapolis garden club. Said her friend Sue Miller, also in line for the viewing: "I actually think I underestimated him when he was in office. My opinion of him went up seeing how he conducted himself as a statesman afterward." 

[5 December 2018 14:18 · Chris Stevenson]

The casket of former President George HW Bush will leave its place of honor in the U.S. Capitol at 10am EST (3pm GMT) and begin a procession to his state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral

[5 December 2018 14:25 · Chris Stevenson]

Here is a graphic giving a sense of the symbolism of that procession.

 

[5 December 2018 14:36 · Chris Stevenson]

US financial markets are due to close on Wednesday a national day of mourning as former President George H.W. Bush's funeral goes on in Washington, DC. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq will both suspend trading for the day. 

The US Postal Service will also "suspend regular mail deliveries, retail services and administrative office activity."

[5 December 2018 14:42 · Chris Stevenson]

In addition to the list of former US presidents, here is the list of current and former world leaders set to attend the service:

• King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan
• Australian Governor General Peter Cosgrove and Lynne Cosgrove
• Polish President Andrzej Duda
• Former Polish President Lech Walesa
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel
• Charles, Prince of Wales
• Former Mexican President Carlos Salinas
• Former UK Prime Minister John Major and Norma Major
• Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, prince of Bahrain and personal representative of the king of Bahrain
• Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
• Former Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
• Former Portuguese President Anibal Vaco Silva
• Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves
• Former Kuwaiti Prime Minister Nasser al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah
• Former Premier of Bermuda John Swan

[5 December 2018 14:47 · Chris Stevenson]

Former President George HW Bush was briefed in 2011 about his eventual state funeral and the process of lying in state, Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman, said.

"Do you think anyone will come?" the former president was said to reply.

 

[5 December 2018 14:52 · Chris Stevenson]

Four men are expected to deliver eulogies. The late president's son George W Bush, also a former president; former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who held the post while the elder Bush was president; former Republican Senator Alan Simpson, who has known the Bush family since the 1960s; and historian Jon Meacham, who wrote a biography of Mr Bush.

[5 December 2018 14:57 · Chris Stevenson]

The guests are starting to arrive, including former Vice President Dick Cheney.

 

[5 December 2018 15:05 · Chris Stevenson]

All eyes will be on the row where the presidents will be sitting:

"It's unusual that a cabal of ex-presidents from both parties dislike a sitting president and that's what you've got happening right now," Douglas Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University told the Associated Press. 

Past presidents often built relationships with their predecessors, Mr Brinkley said. "Bill Clinton would reach out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russia," he said. "Harry Truman leaned heavily on Herbert Hoover. It's endless." 

To be sure, Mr Brinkley added, those ties vary from president to president and there have been chilly relationships as well, noting, for example, that "FDR would never talk to Herbert Hoover."