21-gun salute for Mr Lee Kuan Yew on Sunday

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) will bid former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew a final farewell with the highest honours, said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen today (March 27).

There will be a 21-gun salute fired by four ceremonial 25-pounder guns as the procession journeys around the Padang. Four Republic of Singapore Air Force Black Knights will also salute Mr Lee as his body passes City Hall with a “Missing Man” formation where one Black Knight breaks off.

As Mr Lee’s body crosses the Esplanade Bridge, patrol vessels RSS Dauntless and RSS Resilience will conduct a ceremonial sailpast off the Marina Barrage as a final salute.

“The outpouring of love and respect for the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, our founding Prime Minister, has been overwhelming,” said Dr Ng in a Facebook post. “More importantly, just as in the passing of a revered patriarch of a family, it has brought all Singaporeans together.”

The proceedings on Sunday, he added would be a “painful moment of finality and parting, but life will go on”. “PM Lee Hsien Loong shared this poignant Chinese poem with me: ‘A thousand sails pass the sunken barge, ten thousand saplings spring forth around the dying tree’. Mr Lee Kuan Yew would encourage us to continue to live life to its fullest, to take Singapore further and make the World proud of what more we can accomplish from what he had started.”

For more details: 

Mr Lee's State Funeral Procession and State Funeral Service

Mr Lee's State Funeral procession to pass significant markers