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For the last six months of his life, you couldn't get out of my friend William Tallon's flat without being made to listen to his selection of music for his funeral. At 72 he was frail, but enjoying life.
Yesterday, on a grey and rainy morning, around 200 people - out of the 2,000 who had applied to attend - gathered in the glowing tranquillity of The Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace to hear his choices, which included Mozart's Ave Verum and an extract from Philip Glass's Mishima.
Designed by Inigo Jones, the chapel was a suitably regal setting for a service full of the dignity and theatricality that defined William's life as a member of the Royal household and devoted page to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In the front row sat his cousin Naomi (known as "Nomi"), and on the other side was Lord Snowdon, with his daughter Lady Sarah Chatto, her husband Daniel, and Sir Malcolm Ross, the Prince of Wales's Master of the Household, who helped organise the event.