Royalty, dignitaries and admirers from all walks of life paid their final respects to Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday in the grandest funeral for a British leader in half a century - although a few boos from the London crowd were a reminder of her divisive rule.

The conservative former prime minister whom the former Soviet Union christened the "Iron Lady" was bid farewell with military honors, patriotic hymns, cheers and tears.

Her coffin was borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage, then soldiers and sailors carried her casket into St Paul's Cathedral for a service attended by Queen Elizabeth and 11 serving prime ministers from around the world.

Outside, thousands of supporters lined the route, some throwing blue roses in her path.

Opponents chanted "Ding dong the witch is dead" and turned their backs on her coffin as it passed by - an indication of the divisions which Britain's longest serving prime minister of the 20th century still provokes due to the tumultuous change she brought.

Thatcher sought to arrest Britain's postwar decline with free-market economic policies that enraged her left-wing opponents by smashing the unions and privatizing Britain's national assets.

Her supporters view her as a champion of freedom, while her opponents accuse her of destroying communities and ushering in an era of greed.

"The storm of conflicting opinions centers on the Mrs Thatcher who became a symbolic figure, even an ism, but today the remains of the real Margaret Hilda Roberts are here at her funeral service," the bishop of London, Richard Chartres, told mourners gathered inside St Paul's. Tears ran down the face of Britain's finance minister, George Osborne, during the address.

Big Ben silenced

The cleric brought smiles to the faces of former leader Tony Blair, British Prime Minister David Cameron's wife Samantha and other mourners when he recounted a story about her telling him not to eat duck pate because it was fattening.

Cameron said before the funeral that he "learned a huge amount from watching" Thatcher at work, and today he felt "a great pride in all that she achieved, tinged with sadness".

Cameron and Amanda, Thatcher's 19-year old granddaughter, read from the New Testament, while patriotic hymns echoed around the ornately decorated dome of the 300-year-old cathedral.

The service was attended by 2,300 mourners, including former British prime ministers and the government's entire Cabinet, two heads of state and 17 foreign ministers. Former US secretary of State Henry Kissinger also attended.

The music included her favorite hymns, among them I Vow to Thee My Country.

After readings by Thatcher's granddaughter and Cameron, Chartres addressed the audiences.

In Thatcher's later life, the loss of Denis, her husband, was a grievous blow indeed, he said. "And then there was a struggle with increasing debility from which she has now been liberated," he added.

The service followed a procession, when the coffin, covered by a union flag, was taken by a gun carriage from the church of St Clement Danes, the Central Church of the Royal Air Force.

About 4,000 police officers lined along the route to ensure security. Flags on government buildings were lowered to half-mast, and the Big Ben on the Parliament tower was set to be silenced for the funeral.

Some clearly disagreed with the bishop's exhortation to leave politics at home. Some staged silent protests by turning their backs on Thatcher's coffin. One man held a banner declaring "Rest in shame". Arguments also broke out in the crowd along the route between Thatcher supporters and opponents.

Reuters-Xinhua-AP

(China Daily 04/18/2013 page12)