The Queen Mother’s coffin will make its solemn journey from Windsor to London on Tuesday in preparation for her funeral on April 9. Draped in her royal standard, the coffin will be driven by hearse from the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park on the hour-long journey to London where it will be laid in the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace.
Buckingham Palace say the journey will not be ceremonial, describing it as an “administrative manoeuvre”. However, small crowds are expected to gather at a few sites along the route. The coffin will rest at the Queen’s Chapel until Friday when it will be taken in a military procession to Westminster Hall where the Queen Mother’s body will lie in state until the funeral at Westminister and interment alongside her late husband in the George VI Memorial Chapel, within St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The horsedrawn procession on Friday is expected to stretch for half a mile and involve 1,600 servicemen and women. The Prince of Wales will lead a party of senior royals behind the coffin that will include the Duke Of Edinburgh, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and – in a break with tradition – the Princess Royal. Normally, only men take part in such occasions. It has also been reported that Prince Charles’ sons William and Harry may join the procession.
A royal source, quoted in the Mirror, said: “The decision is being left to them and it will depend on whether or not they are up to it. It will obviously bring back painful memories of their experience of their mother’s funeral.”
The public will then be able to pay their respects when the coffin is lying in state at Westminister Hall from April 5 to April 8.
Next week’s funeral is currently planned to be a royal ceremonial funeral, with protocol dictating that state funerals are reserved for heads of state. However, Parliament – which will be recalled on Wednesday – and Prime Minister Tony Blair could still award the accolade of a state funeral to the Queen Mother, with the death of Winston Churchill in 1965 as a precedent.
Prince Charles is understood to wish to accompany the Queen Mother’s coffin on its journey to her final resting place in Windsor.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
