Great St Mary's Church dates back to the 13th century, almost as old as Cambridge University itself. The church bell, considered the model for the Big Ben in London, chimed 76 times ahead of the funeral at around 1400 GMT to remember the great scientist who died at home on March 14 at the age of 76.

On the streets of Cambridge, the outpouring love and sorrow for Hawking's death are heart-felt and genuine.

Karen Smart, a Cambridge alumna, drove all the way from Suffolk, a city about 80 km east of Cambridge. She and her husband have been waiting outside the church since Saturday morning.

"I will never see someone like Professor Hawking in my life time again. He is such an intelligent and compassionate person," Smart told Xinhua, "That's why I feel that I need to be here to pay my respect."

Professor Alexander Boksenberg, honorary professor of Experimental Astronomy at University of Cambridge, have known Hawking when the latter was a doctoral student at Cambridge.

"He (Hawking) was very friendly and remained so to everyone through the electronic means possible to him for the rest of his difficult physical life," Boksenberg said.

Boksenberg, also former director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, became Hawking's next door neighbor for a year when he moved to Cambridge in 1990.

"Hawking was possessed with a brilliant intellect coupled with a deep concern for humanity in the world. This enabled him to rise above his dreadful motor neurone disease and become one of the most famous scientists in the world," Boksenberg said.