Eddie Redmayne Pays Tribute to Stephen Hawking at His Funeral

The service was officiated by the Reverend Dr Cally Hammond, Dean of Cambridge University's Gonville and Caius College, where Prof Hawking was a fellow for 52 years.

Friends and family were all in attendance, including actor Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar for playing Hawking in 2014's The Theory of Everything.

Mourners included Lily Cole, the actress and model, and Eddie Redmayne, the actor who played Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

The funeral cortege arrives at Great St Marys Church - where the funeral of theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking is being held - in Cambridge, Britain, March 31, 2018.

As the funeral cortege arrived at the church, the bell rang out 76 times - once for each year of Prof Hawking's life.

Professor Hawking studied at the university in his younger years and was awarded the prestigious title of Lucasian professor of mathematics in 1979 by the university.

He gave a biblical reading at the service and Astronomer Royal Martin Rees also spoke.

The cosmologist had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease in his 20s, and was wheelchair-bound and used a voice synthesiser to speak.

An arrangement of white lilies, meant to represent the universe, and another arrangement of white roses, representing the polar star, was placed on top of his coffin.

Hawking's children said in a statement: "On behalf of our whole family we want to express our huge gratitude to all the wonderful tributes to our father and to those who have sent us messages of condolence". He was an integral and highly recognisable part of the university and the city.

"I, like many who knew and loved him, had come to think of him as immortal and our sorrow is tinged with a feeling of disbelief that he is no longer here".

Hawking left behind sons Robert and Timothy and daughter Lucy.

According to Hawking's family, his life and works touched the lives of many people, religious and nonreligious, which is why his funeral service was also both traditional and inclusive, so as to reflect the diversity of his life.

A private reception was held afterward at Trinity College.

There will be another service for Hawking at Westminster Abbey in London on June 15, where his ashes will be interred, near the graves of sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.