BECKHAM SAYS QUEEN WAS ‘SOMEONE SPECIAL’
LONDON >> A surging tide of people — ranging from London retirees to former England soccer captain David Beckham — have lined up to file past Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin as it lies in state at Parliament, so many that authorities had to call a temporary halt Friday to more people joining the miles-long queue.
By late afternoon, a live tracker said the line to get into historic Westminster
Hall had reopened, but the British government warned that it would take more than 24 hours of waiting to cover the 5 miles from the start of the line in Southwark Park to the coffin at Parliament.
The mourners kept silently streaming into Westminster Hall even as King Charles III and his three siblings stood vigil around the flag-draped coffin for 15 minutes on Friday evening. A baby’s cry was the only sound.
Those who came often bowed before the coffin or made a sign of the cross. Several veterans, their medals shining in the spotlights, offered sharp salutes. Some people wept.
Beckham was spotted in the line of mourners near Britain’s Houses of Parliament at lunchtime Friday.
He’s believed to have joined the queue at 2 a.m. and to have lined up for more than 10 hours.
Wearing a white shirt and black tie, he bowed briefly to the coffin before moving out of Westminster
Hall.
“We have been lucky as a nation to have had someone who has led us the way her majesty has led us, for the amount of time, with kindness, with caring and always reassurance,” Beckham said. “I think that’s the one thing that we all felt safe and we will continue that with the royal family. But I think her majesty was someone special and will be missed, not just by everyone in our country but everyone around the world.”