Body to stay in vault until Queen dies, when they will lie together

AFTER his funeral, the Duke of Edinburgh will be privately interred in the Royal Vault of St George’s Chapel, but this will not be his final resting place. The Duke’s body will not be moved until the Queen dies because it is more convenient to amend the writing on the stone for more than one person.

When the Queen dies, Philip will be transferred to the gothic church’s King George VI memorial chapel to lie alongside his wife of 73 years. The tiny chapel houses the remains of the Queen’s father, George VI, her mother, the Queen Mother, and sister Princess Margaret.

The central feature of the pale stone annexe, added to the north side of St George’s behind the North Quire Aisle in 1969, is a black stone slab set into the floor. It is inscribed with “George VI” and “Elizabeth” in gold lettering with their birth and death dates.

On Saturday, the Queen and close family members will gather privately after the funeral as the Duke’s coffin is interred in the Royal Vault – set beneath St George’s Chapel – for the time being.

It will be placed on a marble slab in the quire and lowered into the vault by electric motor. The Royal Vault at Windsor was created between 1804 and 1810 for George III, who died in 1820 and is one of three kings interred there.

Also in the vault are George IV and William IV. Others there include George III’S wife, Queen Charlotte, and their daughter, Princess Amelia, George IV’S daughter, Princess Charlotte, and Queen Victoria’s father, the Duke of Kent.

Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault before being moved to the George VI memorial chapel with her parents’ coffins when the Queen Mother died weeks later. The princess wanted to be cremated as she found the royal burial ground at Frogmore in Windsor Great Park “gloomy”.