Stephen Hawking's family offer funeral tickets to members of public in ballot

Up to 1,000 passes made available for service on 15 June

A public ballot has opened for tickets to the service held in honour of Professor Stephen Hawking at Westminster Abbey.

The renowned British physicist, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in his twenties, died peacefully at his Cambridge home at the age of 76 in March.

The service of thanksgiving for Professor Hawking will take in the large Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster in London on 15 June.

Up to 1,000 tickets are available to members of the public in a ballot being run by the Stephen Hawking Foundation.

The service will see the world-famous physicist’s ashes buried between Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

His daughter, Lucy Hawking, said: "We are so grateful to Westminster Abbey for offering us the privilege of a service of thanksgiving for the extraordinary life of our father and for giving him such a distinguished final resting place."

She added: "We are also very pleased to be able to offer tickets to the public so that our father's many admirers will have the chance to join in the service."

The Dean of Westminster, The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, said: "The service of thanksgiving for the life and work of Stephen Hawking will celebrate not only his remarkable achievements as a scientist, but also his character and endurance through his years living with a devastating illness."

Professor Hawking’s work centred around bringing together relativity - the nature of space and time - and quantum theory to explain the genesis of the universe. His 1988 book A Brief History Of Time sold 10 million copies and was translated into 40 languages.

The service will not just be attended by Professor Hawking's friends and family but also by colleagues, academics and schoolchildren.

Afterwards Westminster Abbey will open its doors to the public in order to allow people to pay their respects at his grave.

The ticket ballot for the service closes at midnight on 15 May and applications for tickets can be made at stephenhawkinginterment.com.

The cosmologist’s funeral took place on 31 March at University Church of St Mary the Great, which is steps away from Cambridge University’s Gonville and Caius College where the scientist spent more than half a century as a research fellow. Crowds also lined the streets of Cambridge for the funeral.

Eddie Redmayne led tributes to Professor Hawking by reading a poignant Bible passage about time at his funeral.

The actor, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Professor Hawking in 2014 biopic The Theory of Everything, gave the recital at a private service which was attended by 500 guests.

The 36-year-old read an extract from Ecclesiastes 3.1-11 titled "Everything Has Its Time".

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh,” the passage read.

“A time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace."

Other high profile guests included Queen guitarist Brian May, tech titan Elon Musk, model Lily Cole, playwright Alan Bennett, and comedian Dara O Briain.