At 10.35 am on Monday, a finding party from The Queen’s Company, 1st Bn Grenadier Guards will lift the coffin from the catafalque and place it in the Royal Navy state carriage, which was retired in 1901 for the funeral of Queen Victoria and has been used for the funerals of Edward VII, George V, George VI, Winston Churchill and Earl Mountbatten; It will be hand pulled by 142 Royal Navy Ratings through Parliament Square, where a Tri-Service Guard of Honor will command attention. Led by the massive pipes and drums of the Scots and Irish Regiment, the Gurkha Brigade and the RAF, the coffin, which will be followed on foot by the King and members of the Royal Family, will arrive at the West Gate of Westminster Abbey at 10.52, where the bearer will take it to the Abbey and place it on a catafalque.
The state funeral
Kicking off at 11am, the state funeral is expected to be one of the most-watched televised events in history, with a potential global audience in the billions. It will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster, with lessons read by the Prime Minister and Chief Secretary of the Commonwealth and a homily by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The 2,000-strong congregation, which will start arriving from 8am, will include members of the royal family, heads of state and government, but also emergency workers, George Cross and Victoria Cross recipients and ordinary members of the public who were recognized for public service on the Queen’s most recent birthday. Visiting heads of state and representatives of foreign governments will gather at the Royal Chelsea Hospital to be bussed to the Abbey, although so-called heads of state, including Joe Biden, the US president, will be allowed to use the same transport. The Order of Service has not yet been released, but at 11.55 the Last Post will be played, followed by two minutes’ silence both in the Abbey and across the UK. The service will conclude at midday with the National Anthem and lament played by the Queen’s Piper, Pipe Major Paul Burns of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Pipe Major Burns would have woken the late Queen on her last morning, playing under her window at Balmoral as he did every day. The Queen’s piper played for 15 minutes under her window at 9am every morning, whether she was at Balmoral, Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace or Holyroodhouse. The pallbearer will then carry the coffin back to the waiting gun carriage for the next stage of the late Queen’s journey. When the service ends, the visiting heads of state will walk to Church House next to the Abbey for a reception hosted by James Cleverly, the Secretary of State.
