WINDSOR, England – Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest alongside her beloved husband on Monday after a day which saw Britain and the world pay a final farewell to the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, in a dazzling show of pomp and ceremony.
Hundreds of thousands of well-wishers lined the route her hearse took from London, throwing flowers, cheering and clapping as it passed from the city to the English countryside that she so loved much.
Many more had crammed into the capital to witness the procession and funeral, in a moving tribute to Britain’s longest-serving monarch who won global respect during 70 years on the throne.
Inside the majestic Westminster Abbey where the funeral was held, some 500 presidents, prime ministers, foreign royal family members and dignitaries, including Joe Biden of the United States, were among the 2,000 congregation.
Later the attention switched to St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, where some 800 guests attended a committal service ahead of her burial.
It concluded with the crown, orb and sceptre – symbols of the monarch’s power and governance – being removed from the coffin and placed on the altar.
The Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the royal household, then broke his ‘Wand of Office’, signifying the end of his service to the sovereign, and placed it on the casket before it slowly descended into the royal vault.
As the congregation sang the national anthem, King Charles appeared to be fighting back tears.
Later in the evening, in a private family service, the coffin of Elizabeth and her husband of more than seven decades, Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99, will be buried together in the same chapel where her parents and sister, Princess Margaret, also rest.
It was in the same vast building that the queen was photographed mourning Philip alone during the pandemic lockdown, reinforcing the sense of a monarch in synch with her people during a testing time.
The casket was earlier taken from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch and transferred to a hearse to travel to Windsor, where more big crowds waited patiently.
Earlier in the day, the queen’s coffin entered Westminster Abbey to lines of scripture set to a score used at every state funeral since the early 18th century.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told the congregation that the grief felt by so many across Britain and the wider world reflected the late monarch’s “abundant life and loving service”.
“Her late majesty famously declared on a 21st birthday broadcast that her whole life would be dedicated to serving the nation and Commonwealth,” he said.
“Rarely has such a promise been so well kept. Few leaders receive the outpouring of love that we have seen.”
The evocative bugle call of the “Last Post” echoed around a hushed Westminster Abbey as the state funeral drew to a close – a poignant mark of remembrance and gratitude for the UK’s longest-serving monarch.
After four extraordinary days in which hundreds of thousands of people queued for miles to pay tribute to the Queen at her lying-in-state in London’s Westminster Hall, Monday’s funeral was the final public moment for a woman who dutifully reigned over her country for 70 years.
A two minutes’ silence was observed in memory of the Queen during her funeral, which ended with God Save The King, the reworded national anthem after her son Charles’s accession.
Credit: STRAITS TIMES.
