Funeral role the event of a lifetime
Retired colonel joins in Queen’s funeral procession
“As events go it was right up there and it was a lifetime experience,” said Colonel Paul Curry on Saturday while back in Dannevirke to visit his family, referring to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in which he participated on September 19.
Colonel Curry has retired from the army but retains the rank of ColonelCommandant of the NZ Royal Engineers and still works as a civilian at New Zealand Army Headquarters in Trentham where he is executive officer for civilian response.
Colonel Curry knew there was a chance he might get to the funeral because Queen Elizabeth was patron of the NZ Royal Engineers as she is of the other three army corps — Infantry, Artillery and Armoured — but when he got the call it was still a shock and a thrill.
He, with the commandants of the other corps and 28 other armed forces personnel were soon winging their way to London on September 12 and was no sooner recovered from jet lag when he attended a full-dress rehearsal of the parade held at 2am in the morning Thursday, 15 four days before the actual event.
Colonel Curry said the rehearsal was an exhausting experience and the actual event was easier, putting it down to the heightened adrenalin of the latter.
He found the whole rehearsal experience overwhelming, seeing all the military participants in their amazing regalia and the levels of precision extraordinary.
His contingent comprised the commanders of major corps from Australia (6), Canada (17) and NZ (4) and marched between the Commonwealth Defence Advisers Chiefs in front with the British Service Chiefs and Mounted Troops behind which were just in front of the Royal Navy sailors who were pulling the Queen’s coffin on the gun carriage.
The distance marched down The Mall was two kilometres, taking 50 minutes at a pace of 75 steps per minute (the pace the horses walk) helped by a drum beat to keep rhythm.
Colonel Curry said as they passed the crowd was totally silent.
Inside Westminster Abbey Colonel Curry said he was stunned by the huge size and ornateness of the building. They were seated 90 minutes before the funeral service began and were located where he could not actually see the royal family seated but saw them and other global leaders enter and was barely 25 metres from the spot where the Queen’s coffin was transferred to the hearse.
Colonel Curry returned to New Zealand on Sunday, September 25 but not before visiting Green Park to view and read many of the floral tributes left there. He said the British public were clearly very moved by the Queen’s death. He said the two minutes silence in London was very powerful.
He also carried out other NZ High Commission duties and visited a base at Salisbury where he witnessed New Zealand troops training Ukrainian soldiers in weaponry.
Upon his return to New Zealand he participated in the NZ State Memorial Service for Queen Elizabeth in Wellington on September 26 and found that very moving as well.
For Colonel Curry this experience was much more “than a chance to get out of the office”. He said it was hugely memorable but he did not fully realise the magnitude of the Queen’s funeral until he saw it broadcast on television.
He concluded that “it was a chance in a lifetime and does not expect it will come again.”
NB Colonel Paul Curry was raised and educated in Dannevirke before following a distinguished career in the New Zealand Army serving overseas and in New Zealand.