Prince Harry has been given special permission by the King to wear military uniform when attending a vigil at his grandmother’s coffin.
The Duke of Sussex was stripped of his military titles after giving up life as a working royal and moving to the United States with his wife, Meghan.
He has been in civilian dress for official events, including when walking behind Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Wednesday when it was carried to Westminster Hall for the lying in state. The duke, who did two tours of duty in Afghanistan, will join his brother, the Prince of Wales, in wearing uniform in Westminster Hall on Saturday, before the state funeral on Monday.
Prince Harry will stand at the foot of the coffin, with his brother at the head. Prince William will be flanked by his cousins Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, the Queen’s eldest grandson.
Harry will be with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with Lady Louise Windsor and her brother Viscount Severn at the middle of the coffin.
The Princess Royal’s daughter, Zara Tindall, was close to her grandmother, sharing a love of horses and riding. The grandchildren would greet the Queen with a kiss on both cheeks followed by a curtsey or a bow.
Lady Louise Windsor, 18, and her brother Viscount Severn, 14, live in Bagshot Park, Surrey, not far from the Queen’s Windsor Castle home, and spent many hours visiting the late monarch. Lady Louise, who is studying English at St Andrews University and who bears a strong resemblance to the Queen as a child, is a skilled carriage-driver, following in the footsteps of her grandfather Philip.
The Queen leaves 12 great-grandchildren: Savannah and Isla Phillips, Prince George of Wales (a future king), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis of Wales, Mia, Lena and Lucas Tindall, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, August Brooksbank, and Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.
When the Queen met her great-grandson George soon after he was born in 2013, it was the first time in almost 120 years that a reigning monarch had met a future king three generations ahead.
On Friday evening, the Queen’s children, King Charles, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex, took part in their own vigil. The King, Anne, Andrew and Edward stood around their mother’s coffin, with their heads bowed throughout as members of the public filed slowly past them.
• This article was amended on 18 September 2022. The Queen had 12 great-grandchildren, not seven as an earlier version said due to an error introduced during editing.
