The body of the Metropolitan Service officer who was killed by the Westminster terror attacker last month was today laid to rest.

The funeral of PC Keith Palmer took place at Southwark Cathedral in central London.

Thousands of police officers lined the route of a 2.6-mile funeral cortege starting at the Palace of Westminster.

PC Palmer, 48, who was married with a five-year-old daughter, was guarding the Houses of Parliament on 22 March when he was stabbed by Khalid Masood.

More than 5,000 rank-and-file officers from every force in Britain spread their way along the two-mile cortege route from Westminster to Southwark Cathedral (left), where the constable’s funeral took place ahead of a private crematorium. The 48-year-old (inset left), a loyal Charlton Athletic fan, was murdered by terrorist Khalid Masood in the London terror attack as he stood guard outside the Palace of Westminster. Paying tribute to the officer during the service, the Reverend Prebendary Jonathan Osborne said PC Palmer had ‘laid down his life for each one of us’.

Met commissioner Cressida Dick – the first female head of Scotland Yard who took the helm today – then read the WH Auden poem Funeral Blues, which starts with the line ‘Stop the Clocks’ and asks for ‘the traffic police men to wear black cotton gloves’ in mourning of a loved one. After the poem was read, Rev Osborne added: ‘Keith died doing his duty, and it was as if in those moments the clock stopped.’ The cortege had snaked through central London and crossed Lambeth Bridge, avoiding the scene of the atrocity on Westminster Bridge. There, visibly distressed police officers bowed their heads as a mark of respect, while others shed tears for the constable