The Queen's funeral on Monday will be the first state funeral to take place for more than half a century and will be the first royal funeral to be held at Westminster Abbey since King George II was laid to rest there back in 1760. After the service, which is due to begin at 11am, Her Majesty will make her final journey to The King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St George's Chapel inside the grounds of Windsor Castle, where she will be laid to rest.
The late Prince Philip, the Queen's husband for 73 years, will also be moved there from his current resting place in the Royal Vault. He was temporarily laid to rest in the Vault, located below St George's Chapel, during his funeral on April 17, 2021 - but will be moved so he and the Queen can be laid to rest together.
The rarely seen Royal Vault was built between 1804 and 1810 for King George III, who died in 1820 and is one of three Kings buried there. Over the years, the burial chamber has also housed the bodies of many other members of the Royal Family, including King George III's wife Queen Charlotte and their daughter Princess Amelia; Princess Charlotte, the daughter of King George I, and the Duke of Kent, Queen Victoria's father. Also interred in the vault are King George IV and King William IV. Prince Philip had been resting there for almost a year-and-a-half.
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Her Majesty will be buried next to Prince Philip in The King George VI Memorial Chapel during a private ceremony attended by her family at 7.30pm on Monday, September 19, Buckingham Palace has said.
As well as being laid to rest beside her husband, Queen Elizabeth II will also be laid to rest near the remains of her father, King George VI, her mother the Queen Mother and her sister, Princess Margaret, all of which lie in the tiny The King George VI Memorial Chapel.
King George VI died in 1952 and was first interred in the Royal Vault. When the memorial chapel was built 17 years later, he was moved there so that the chapel could be his final resting place.
The Queen's late sister, Princess Margaret was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault, before being moved to the memorial chapel with her parents' coffins when the Queen Mother died just weeks later.
The Princess wanted to be cremated because she found the alternative royal burial ground at Frogmore in Windsor Great Park too "gloomy". Lady Glenconner, a lifelong friend of the Princess, said in 2002 that Princess Margaret preferred the memorial chapel instead.
"She told me that she found Frogmore very gloomy," Lady Glenconner said. "I think she’d like to be with the late King, which she will now be. There’s room I think for her to be with him now."
The striking memorial chapel was added on to the North side of St George's Chapel in 1969. Its central feature is a black stone slab set into the floor inscribed with "George VI" and "Elizabeth" in gold lettering, accompanied by their years of birth and death.
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