Family and friends of the Wiltshire nerve agent victim Dawn Sturgess, together with senior police officers involved in her murder investigation, mourned the mother-of-three but also celebrated her life at a moving funeral service in Salisbury.

Sturgess’s 11-year-old daughter told a packed chapel at Salisbury crematorium on Monday how much she and her mother had loved each other.



Sturgess’s partner, Charlie Rowley, who survived exposure to novichok, sat at the front of the service along with members of her family.

Among the music played at the service was the James Blunt song Beautiful Dawn, the hymn Shalom Shalom, and the theme from Fame, including the lyric “I’m gonna live for ever”.

Salisbury crematorium was part of the same site that was sealed off in the first days after the novichok attack on the former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, who is believed to have visited his wife’s grave there shortly before he collapsed.

Dawn Sturgess. Photograph: Metropolitan Police/PA

According to Rev Philip Bromiley, who led the service, there was a round of applause after the daughter’s tribute.

He said: As you can imagine there was a lot of mixed emotions and there was obviously still shock, and people were tremendously tearful having lost a loved one, and yet there was a bit of upbeat spirit to make sure that Dawn had the kind of send-off that they would have wanted.

“We ended the service with Fame - ‘I’m going to live for ever’ - which is a great message for any funeral service to have. It summed her up because she was known for dancing.

“Dawn’s sister Claire gave an extremely moving eulogy and Dawn’s daughter got up and said a couple of lines which resulted in a round of applause from everybody.

“She just said how much she loved her mum and how much her mum had loved her, and really got to the very nerve of what it must be like to lose your own mother. It’s an awful thing but she was so strong.

“The tragic and suddenness of her death was reflected in many of the thoughts and hearts of the public gathered there. Charlie was sat on the front row, obviously very emotional. It was lovely to see him there and I’m really hoping that the service will have given him a healing that he will doubtless need to have in the days and months to come.”

The funeral directors worked with Public Health England (PHE) and the crematorium to ensure the safety of the congregation.

“In the end, nothing was different at all,” Bromiley said. “I think the precautions had been so stringent that by the time the funeral directors were able to take care of Dawn they were able to behave in any other way for any other funeral.

“Pallbearers took the coffin in quite a bit before the service began so the family could have a little bit of head space to think about Dawn before they were surrounded by hundreds of people.

“I was able to touch the coffin and do the final committal in the same way I would have done for any other service.”

One of Sturgess’s friends, Sam Hobson, said: “She was the nicest person you could meet; she would help anyone out if she could. She didn’t have a problem with anyone, she was so happy-go-lucky, friendly and easy to get on with.”



Charlie Rowley, the partner of Dawn Sturgess, also fell ill from exposure to novichok. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

Sturgess died aged 44 on 8 July after she and Rowley fell ill after coming into contact with novichok at the end of June.

Rowley has said the nerve agent took just 15 minutes to poison Sturgess after she sprayed the “oily” substance on to her wrists believing it was perfume he had given her as a gift.

Among the mourners were the chief constable of Wiltshire, Kier Pritchard, and the deputy chief constable, Paul Mills. Pritchard said: “My thoughts are with her children, family members and friends on this day.”

Sturgess and Rowley were poisoned four months after Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury. In the days before he fell ill, Skripal is believed to have visited the cemetery to visit the grave of his wife Liudmila, and a memorial to his son, Alexander. Experts in protective suits spent days combing the site after the Skripals fell ill.