The body of Prince Philip will be moved to the Gothic Church's King George VI Memorial following the death of the Queen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland yesterday afternoon.
The Duke of Edinburgh was privately interred in the Royal Vault of St George’s Chapel after he passed away on April 9, 2021 and he will now be moved to rest alongside his beloved wife of 73 years.
The small chapel houses the remains Queen’s father George VI, her mother the Queen Mother and sister Princess Margaret, Wales news reports. The central feature of the pale stone annexe, which was added on to the north side of St George’s behind the North Quire Aisle in 1969, is a black stone slab set into the floor.
It is inscribed with “George VI” and “Elizabeth” in gold lettering and accompanied by their years of birth and death.
Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault, before being moved to the George VI 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 the princess 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 Royal Vault at Windsor was created between 1804 and 1810 for George III, who died in 1820 and is one of three kings buried there.
Also interred in the vault are George IV and William IV.
George VI died in 1952, but was first interred in the Royal Vault and moved to the memorial chapel when it was built 17 years later.
Others buried there include George III’s wife Queen Charlotte and their daughter Princess Amelia, George IV’s daughter Princess Charlotte and Queen Victoria’s father the Duke of Kent.
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