Queen will have to sit alone at funeral
THE Queen faces the prospect of having to sit on her own during the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral because of Covid rules.
The law states that people attending a funeral must stay at least two metres apart from anyone who is not part of their household, meaning all members of the Royal family will have to spread out in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The Queen is not eligible to be in a support bubble because she does not live on her own, meaning the only person who could sit with her during the service would be a member of her Windsor Castle staff.
The Duke’s private secretary, Brigadier Archie Miller-bakewell, is expected to be one of the 30 mourners allowed at the ceremony and will be the only other member present from the Windsor Castle bubble, known as “HMS Bubble”, that was formed by the Queen and the Duke when Covid restrictions were imposed. This means he may be the only mourner at the funeral eligible by law to sit with the Queen.
Royal sources confirmed that the Queen would be alone unless a member of the Windsor bubble, which numbers around 20 people, were to join her. The
Queen and other members of the Royal family will also, by law, have to wear face coverings during the ceremony, and will not be allowed to sing. Buckingham Palace said exact details of the funeral service would be disclosed tomorrow, but a spokesman added: “We have made it very clear that the service will be Covid-compliant.”
Andy Langford, clinical director of the charity Cruse Bereavement Care, of which the Queen is royal patron, said many people had found it “immensely difficult not being able to grieve the way they want to grieve” over the past year.
He said: “The Queen may be standing alone but there is a difference between being alone and feeling isolated, and the important thing is that you can have people you can reach out to.
“It’s also about being fully informed in advance about how the ceremony will take place.”
The Government’s Covid website warns mourners that “you may struggle not just with the bereavement, but with the impact of social distancing measures and the fact that you may not be able to say goodbye in the way that you would have wanted”.
Some funerals over the past year have been marred by members of staff at crematoria berating relatives for comforting next of kin and forcing them to move apart. They included a funeral in Milton Keynes last October, at which a man moved his chair so he could put his arm around his mother as they laid his father to rest, only for a member of staff to interrupt the service and order them to “move the chairs back”. The local council later said staff “should have taken a more considered approach”.
Other members of the Royal family who will have to sit two metres away from everyone else during the service include the Duke of Sussex, who does not live with anyone else attending the ceremony, and his cousin Peter Phillips, who is expected to attend without his estranged wife Autumn.
Other members of the Royal family, such as the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, will sit together as couples, but two metres away from other mourners.
Brigadier Miller-bakewell began working for the Duke in 2010, managing his diary and his public engagements before the Duke’s retirement in 2017. The 66-year-old has represented the Duke at official events in the past four years. Before he joined the Royal Household, he worked at the Ministry of Defence as its director of resettlement, helping former military personnel settle into civilian life, following a distinguished Army career of his own.
The Government’s rules state that only one “professional” person can sing at funerals, though up to three people can sing “if it is essential to an act of worship”. Hymns must “not include audience participation”, according to current rules.
Although there are other qualifications for a support bubble, such as being a single parent, none applies to Her Majesty.
If the Queen intends refreshments to be provided after the funeral, only five other people will be able to attend, as the rule of six applies.
Despite officially being in a two-week period of mourning, the Queen carried out a royal engagement yesterday, hosting an audience with Earl Peel, as he was appointed a permanent lord-inwaiting following his retirement as lord chamberlain of the Royal household.
The Duke of Cambridge will not be reunited with Prince Harry until the day of their grandfather’s funeral, when the Duchess of Cambridge is expected to act as peacemaker between the royal brothers.
The siblings are understood to have spoken on the telephone since Harry landed in the UK on Sunday and hope to finally see each other in the flesh on Saturday morning, ahead of the 3pm ceremony at Windsor Castle.
It will be their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year and comes after Harry and Meghan gave an interview to US chat show host Oprah Winfrey suggesting an unnamed member of the Royal family had queried Archie’s skin tone as well as describing William as “trapped” in the monarchy.
Sources close to both couples insist that they will be putting their differences aside for the sake of the Queen as the family gathers at St George’s Chapel to remember the Duke of Edinburgh, who died on Friday, aged 99.
As one royal source put it: “They know it is not about them on Saturday – it is about honouring their grandfather’s memory and supporting their grandmother.
“I would be extremely surprised if that wasn’t front and centre of both their minds.
“They will be keen to spend time together as a family, in the same time zone for once.”
Another well-placed insider said:
“The entire focus is on the Queen. No exceptions. A family unified.”
The Duchess of Cambridge, who Harry described as the “big sister I never had” when she became engaged to William in 2010, will help to broker peace between her husband and brother-in-law.
Kate, 39, was said to be “hopeful of a reconciliation” with Harry and Meghan before the Oprah interview, telling friends she did not think it was too late to “pull them back in”.
During last month’s prime time two-hour tell-all, Meghan accused Kate of making her cry during a bridesmaid’s dress fitting before her wedding to Harry in May 2018 and questioned why she had not acted to correct reports it was the other way round. She said Kate “owned it and apologised” with a handwritten note and flowers.
Reports later emerged suggesting Meghan had slammed the door in Kate’s face when she made the peace offering on the doorstep of Nottingham Cottage, the Sussexes’ former home at Kensington Palace.
With the pregnant Meghan unable to attend the funeral on doctor’s advice, it is hoped that Kate may be able to foster a rapprochement, believing it to be “incredibly sad” that William and Harry are not on better terms.
One source says: “Being so close to her own siblings, Pippa and James, and having witnessed first-hand the special bond between William and Harry, she has found the whole situation difficult and upsetting.”
More introverted than her public persona might suggest, the levelheaded Duchess has been credited with “taming” William’s sometimes fiery emotions since they married a decade ago. Unlike her husband, who is a “bit of a news junkie”, the mother-ofthree tends to shy away from press coverage and has gained a reputation for her unflappability in the face of a royal crisis.
William “hit the roof ” when paparazzi photographs emerged of his wife sunbathing topless during a private holiday in the south of France in 2012 but Kate largely shrugged it off. When the couple won €100,000 (£92,000) in damages from Closer, the French magazine that published them, they donated the money to charity.
The source added: “She is certainly someone who shies away from conflict and will be hoping to soothe the tensions.”
Meghan’s friends have suggested she is willing to put the past behind her and turn over a new leaf in her strained relationship with the royals. They said the Duchess believes Prince Philip would have wanted to see the broken bridges mended. The Sussexes’ second child, a girl, is thought to be
‘They know it is not about them on Saturday – it is about honouring their grandfather’s memory’
due as early as June – another opportunity, perhaps, to bring the family together, albeit via video call.
After flying from Los Angeles on a scheduled BA flight and landing at London’s Heathrow on Sunday lunchtime, Harry is currently quarantining at Frogmore Cottage, his former Windsor home, where he is required to remain until Friday.
Although he will be allowed to attend his grandfather’s funeral regardless “on compassionate grounds”, he can only leave selfisolation after five days rather than 10 for another reason if he provides a negative coronavirus test under the Government’s Test to Release scheme. Because he has to take a PCR test, rather than a more rapid, lateral flow test, which produces a result in minutes, it is unlikely he will be confirmed as negative for Covid until Saturday morning.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are spending the Easter holidays at Amner Hall, their Norfolk
‘They will be keen to spend time together as a family, in the same time zone for once’
home, and are not due back in London until the end of the week.
With the guest-list limited to 30 under the latest government coronavirus guidelines on indoor worship, no great-grandchildren are believed to be attending the funeral.
It is thought the Cambridge children will return to Kensington Palace with their parents to prepare for the start of the summer term on Tuesday. This would potentially give them the opportunity to see “Uncle Harry” outdoors before he returns to the US.
Yesterday, Harry’s spokeswoman declined to discuss his movements after the funeral.