LONDON (AFP) – Britain said farewell to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday at a state funeral attended by world leaders, before a historic last ceremonial journey through the streets of London packed with mourners.
Huge crowds gathered in near silence to watch as the queen’s flag-draped coffin, topped with the Imperial State Crown, her orb and sceptre, was carried slowly to a gun carriage from Parliament’s Westminster Hall where it had lain in state since last Wednesday.
To the tune of pipes and drums, the gun carriage – used at every state funeral since Queen Victoria’s in 1901 – was drawn by 142 junior enlisted sailors in the Royal Navy to Westminster Abbey.
The 1,000-year-old church’s tenor bell tolled 96 times at one-minute intervals – one for every year of her life – stopping a minute before the service began at 11am.
In his funeral sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised the queen’s life of duty and service to the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.
“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer,” he told the 2,000 guests, who included US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Emperor Naruhito.
“But in all cases, those who serve will be loved and remembered,” the Anglican leader added, before the coffin was borne on another procession towards her final resting place in Windsor Castle, west of London.
The longest-serving monarch in British history died at Balmoral, her Scottish Highland retreat, on September 8 after a year of declining health.
Her eldest son and successor, His Majesty King Charles III, dressed in ceremonial military uniform, followed the solemn processions, alongside his three siblings.
Charles’ eldest son Prince William accompanied them alongside William’s brother, Prince Harry, and other senior royals.
William’s two eldest children, George and Charlotte, who are next in line to the throne, also walked behind the coffin inside the abbey.
Late Sunday, Charles, 73, and his wife, Her Majesty Queen Consort Camilla, said they had been “deeply touched” by the public’s flood of messages. “As we all prepare to say our last farewell, I wanted simply to take this opportunity to say thank you,” he said.
Britain, a country much changed since the queen’s coronation in the same abbey in 1953, has dug deep into its centuries of tradition to honour the only monarch that most of its people have ever known.
“It’s a moment of history… She’s everyone’s granny,” said engineer Alice Garret, 28.
Others unable to be in London gathered in cinemas and churches around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to watch the service and procession on big screens.
Auto engineer Jamie Page, a 41-year-old former soldier, stood on Whitehall to observe the funeral procession, wearing his military medals from service in Iraq.
“Sixteen-years-old, I swore an oath of allegiance to the queen. She’s been my boss. She means everything,” he said.
The funeral lasted just under an hour, ended by a bugler playing The Last Post, before two minutes of silence and the national anthem, God Save the King.
After an hour-long procession, the coffin was taken west by road to Windsor Castle, where thousands had lined the route.
Throughout the procession after the funeral, Big Ben, the bell atop the Elizabeth Tower, tolled and military guns fired every minute.
Some 6,000 military personnel have been drafted in to take part in proceedings in what Britain’s highest-ranking military officer has called “our last duty for Her Majesty the Queen”.
The queen was buried alongside her father King George VI, her mother Queen Elizabeth and sister Princess Margaret, reuniting in death the family who once called themselves “us four”.
The coffin of her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99, will also be transferred to lie alongside her.
The lead-lined oak casket, draped with the queen’s colours, was lowered into the Royal Vault as a lone bagpiper played a lament.
