Pupils from Croydon and Wandsworth schools were lucky enough to attend the Service of Thanksgiving for Professor Stephen Hawking at Westminster Abbey.

PACT Educational Trust were invited to send a pupil from Oliver House School, Clapham, Oakwood School, Purley, The Cedars School, Croydon, and The Laurels School, Wandsworth to the ceremony.

The students were selected for their interest and achievement in STEM subjects, and got to join the 1000 people who were attending the service on Friday, June 15.

Accomplished scientists, celebrities, students and members of the public were invited to join Professor Hawking’s family and friends at Westminster Abbey to give special thanks for his contribution to our understanding of science and to witness Professor Hawking’s ashes being interred next to other scientists, including Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton at the Abbey.

All attendees were reminded, through the contents of the service, that his was a life of searching for the truth in the field of cosmology while battling to overcome adversities.