FAMILY of the late 6th Marquess of Bristol gathered in Suffolk as his body was laid to rest in the grounds of Ickworth House.

Lady Victoria Hervey, 34, the late marquess’s daughter, joined her sister, Lady Isabella Hervey, 28, and brother Frederick, 30, for a private family service in St Leonard’s Church in Horringer yesterday.

Victor Hervey, whose family lived at Ickworth House outside Bury St Edmunds, died in Monaco in 1985 and was buried there.

But the late marquess’s third wife, Yvonne, has decided to return home to England and wanted her husband to be laid to rest in his family vault in the grounds of the Ickworth estate.

Frederick, the 8th Marquess of Bristol, yesterday said his father would have been pleased to return to his former family home, which he used to refer to as “sweet Ickworth”.

“It is very positive he has come back to Ickworth,” he said.

“He was brought up here and was very happy here.

“He would be very happy to be returned. It was a very important place for him.”

Lord Hervey gave an address at the simple ceremony in the pretty village church at the gates of his family’s former estate, while Lady Victoria Hervey also delivered a reading.

Canon Christopher Tuckwell, administrator of Westminster Cathedral, gave the sermon, while Rev Robert Griffiths, rector of Horringer, led bidding prayers.

The late marquess’s coffin was then driven through the gates of his former ancestral home, stopping at the front of the iconic building’s rotunda for a final farewell.

The marquess was then laid alongside his ancestors in the vault of St Mary’s Church in Ickworth’s grounds.

“It is the completion of what he would have wanted,” Lord Hervey said. “This is the place he always wanted to end up.

“Our family history is still linked with this house.”

The marquess’s ancestors have been buried in St Mary’s Church since 1497, when Thomas Hervey was placed there.

The late marquess’s son, John Hervey, the 7th Marquess of Bristol, is also buried in the vault, having died in 1999 aged 44.

The church is in the process of being restored after Frederick, the 8th Marquess of Bristol, created The Ickworth Church Conservation Trust in 2006 to safeguard its future.

“He is being laid to rest with all his family,” Lord Hervey said.