Britain's beloved Queen Mother has died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 101, Buckingham Palace announced.
"Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother had become increasingly frail in recent weeks following her bad cough and chest infection over Christmas," said a spokesperson for the Palace. "Her condition deteriorated this morning and her doctors were called."
The Queen Mother passed away at 3.15 p.m. Saturday at Royal Lodge, Windsor, with her daughter the Queen at her bedside. Her other daughter, Princess Margaret, died just two months ago at the age of 71. The Queen Mother travelled to her daughter's funeral by helicopter as she was too poorly to make the journey by car.
Her eldest grandson, Prince Charles, prepared to cut short his skiing holiday in Switzerland as soon as he heard the news of her death, saying that he was "completely devastated".
Prince Andrew was also abroad, in Barbados with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson and their two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie. Other members of the royal family were already gathering at Windsor for Easter.
The Queen, however, was not expected to attend the traditional Easter service on Sunday. Her mother's coffin was due to be transferred to the Royal Chapel Of All Saints in Windsor Great Park on Sunday morning.
Tributes to the hugely popular figurehead soon began to pour in, with Prime Minister Tony Blair paying homage to the "grace, sense of duty and remarkable zest for life" which had made the Queen Mother so admired by people of all ages.
Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher described the Queen Mother's passing as "an irreplaceable loss to the whole nation," while former politician Lord St John of Fawsley said, "We have lost our most treasured national person."
"She was not merely an historical figure," he continued. "She was history."
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
