LONDON, Sept 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Queen Elizabeth II left Buckingham Palace on Wednesday for the final time as her coffin began its journey to Westminster Hall, where the late monarch will lie in state.
The queen’s coffin, draped in the royal standard and topped with the Imperial State Crown, was borne on a horse-drawn gun carriage out of the front gates of her London residence at 2:22 pm.
Big Ben tolled and guns were fired at one-minute intervals from Hyde Park as a military band played funeral marches from Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin to accompany the procession to Westminster.
The queen’s eldest son and successor King Charles III, his heir Prince William and youngest son Prince Harry followed the coffin on foot as it made the one-mile (1.6-kilometre) journey.
Crowds lined the route, watching in silence, as the cortege passed.
The 38-minute procession ended at Westminster Hall, where Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby led a service attended by Charles and other royals after the coffin was brought in. The choir of Westminster Abbey and the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal sang the words of a psalm.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you,” Welby said as he read from the Book of John.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to file past in the coming days as the Queen’s coffin will rest at the hall until Monday.
London’s Heathrow Airport halted flights to prevent overhead planes disturbing the procession.
The airport said in a statement that the changes would “ensure silence over central London as the ceremonial procession moves from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.”
Leaders, politicians, public figures, as well as more than 500 dignitaries from around the world, will descend on London to pay their last respects to Britain’s longest reigning monarch, who died Thursday at the age of 96. US President Joe Biden has already confirmed that he will be at the event, which will be attended by up to 2,000 people. — NNN-AGENCIES
