Solemn journey
HUNDREDS of thousands of mourners are expected to honour the Queen on her final journeys before she is laid to rest next to her beloved husband Prince Philip.
She will be taken from Scotland to London where, following her state funeral at Westminster Abbey next Monday, she will be interred at Windsor.
This morning six gatekeepers, who had “a personal relationship” with the Queen, will carry her oak coffin from the Ballroom at Balmoral Castle to a waiting hearse for a 100-mile journey to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh.
It will take six hours so mourners in towns and villages can honour her. At Holyroodhouse, a bearer party will carry the coffin to the Throne Room, where it will stay until tomorrow afternoon.
The Earl Marshal, The Duke of Norfolk, who has overall responsibility for organising state occasions, said: “We will carry out our duty over the coming days with the heaviest of hearts. But also, with the firmest of resolve to ensure a fitting farewell to one of the defining figures of our times.”
Tomorrow King Charles and the Queen Consort will travel to Edinburgh from London, to join members of the Royal Family in a walking procession, taking the coffin from Holyroodhouse to St Giles’ Cathedral on the Royal Mile. Charles and Camilla will lead on foot, following a hearse flanked by the bearer party.
The crown of Scotland will be placed on to the coffin as it is carried inside. The Queen will lie at rest until Tuesday allowing, for the first time, members of the public to queue and pay their respects. Charles and Camilla will then go on a whistle-stop tour of the UK to receive messages of condolence.
They will fly to Belfast, and then on to Hillsborough Castle. The King will meet the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and party leaders and attend a church service, then return to London.
On Tuesday evening, Princess Anne will accompany the Queen’s body on an RAF flight back to London, delivering her mother back to Buckingham Palace, greeted by the King and Queen Consort.
On Wednesday, at 2.22 pm, the coffin will be taken in procession on a gun carriage from the Palace to the Palace of Westminster, via Queen’s Gardens, The Mall, Horse Guards Road and Horse Guards Arch, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square and New Palace Yard.
Royal officials expect hundreds of thousands of people will line the route of the procession, which will take place in eerie silence – similar to the state funeral in 1952 of the Queen’s father King George VI.
The procession will include the King and members of the Royal Family to the rear of the gun carriage. The Queen will lie-in-state until 6.30am on the morning of the funeral.
Following the funeral, the coffin will be taken again in procession from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch and then on to Windsor.
Once at Windsor, the hearse will travel via the Long Walk to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the Queen will finally be laid to rest.