The Queen Mother will lie in state for the four days preceding her funeral – which will take place on Tuesday, April 9 – to enable mourners to pay their last respects to the nation’s oldest and best loved royal who died on Saturday. She was 101.
The mother of Queen Elizabeth II will have a royal ceremonial funeral – rather than a state funeral, which is generally limited to monarchs – at Westminster before being buried with her husband, the late King George VI, at Windsor.
Her coffin is currently resting in the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park, where it has been draped in her royal standard and a wreath of pink camellias. It will remain there until Tuesday, before being taken to London. There, it will be placed in the Queen’s Chapel in St James’s Palace for three days before a ceremonial procession takes it to Westminster Hall for the lying in state.
The first public ceremonies honouring the Queen Mother were being held on April 1 with 41-gun salutes taking place at a host of military sites across the UK and Gibraltar. Books of condolences have been opened across the nation.
The official public paying of respects follows the private evensong service on Sunday at the Royal Chapel of All Saints, where each year on February 6, the Queen Mother would remember the death of her husband in 1952. The Queen, dressed in black with a simple diamond brooch, and the Duke of Edinburgh headed the royal mourners.
The sadness of the occasion showed in the monarch’s eyes, which were still puffy with tears as she left the service. This was the second time in less than seven weeks that she had knelt and prayed for somebody close to her. The death of her adored mother coming so soon after that of her younger sister Princess Margaret has cast a shadow over the Queen’s Golden Jubilee year.
Also present at the evensong service were the Prince of Wales, his sons William and Harry, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl and Countess of Wessex.
Prince Charles, who was particularly close to his grandmother, is said to have taken her death badly. He had to seek the Queen’s permission to fly back in the same aircraft as his sons, after cutting short their skiing holiday in Klosters, Switzerland. Security fears would normally rule out such a risk to the first, second and third in line to the throne. A courtier at St James’s Palace described it as, “logistically the most practical solution. The Queen was anxious for Prince Charles to return and it makes sense for the boys to be with him,” he said.
The Prince of Wales is expected to allow himself a day of private grieving before paying a public tribute to his grandmother.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
