Attendance at Funeral Services
Arrangements are made with a member of the family or an official representing the group in charge, as well as undertaker. The President occupies the front left-hand pew and is attended by his ADC.
The immediate family would normally be placed in the front pew on the right.
The President should arrive five minutes before the casket in order to be met by the officiating clergy.
The President will not normally go to the cemetery.
If the casket is carried out at the end of the service, the members of the family of the deceased should follow immediately after the casket. The President comes next.
Representation of the President at Funerals
An ADC may be requested to represent the President at a funeral. If he is a uniformed officer he should conform to the following:-
- Service dress, with medals, aiguillettes, and mourning band should be worn to the service;
- At the service the ADC will sit in the first row on the left, and will leave following the chief mourners (he assumes the President’s precedence). The ADC will not follow the procession to the cemetery.
This is the only occasion on which the President is "represented" at any function, although requests may come from time to time that this be done. The President does not act as an Honorary pall bearer at a funeral.
Attendance at funerals of relations or friends of great intimacy is of course a personal matter and no ADC attends the President, but proper arrangements for seating should nevertheless be made with a member of the family and the undertaker.