The Princess Royal said it was an "honour and a privilege" to accompany the Queen’s coffin as it left Scotland on Tuesday on its journey to Buckingham Palace.
The late monarch's only daughter said the love and respect shown to the Queen on her journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh and onto London had been “both humbling uplifting”.
Crowds broke into applause as the coffin was taken from St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, where some 26,000 well-wishers had queued for many hours around the clock to pay their respects.
Princess Anne escorted the hearse to Edinburgh Airport, where the coffin was flown by military transporter to RAF Northolt and taken through rush hour traffic to central where the Queen will lie in state at Westminster Hall from 5pm on Wednesday.
“It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys,” she said in a statement. “Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.”
She finished: “To my mother, the Queen, thank you.”
The princess was in Scotland when the Queen was taken ill, and stayed at her bedside at Balmoral Castle, as senior royals rushed to say their final farewells.
“I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother’s life,” Anne said.
The Queen’s coffin arrived at Buckingham Palace shortly before 8pm on Tuesday, where crowds had waited patiently in the rain.
Standing at the grand entrance, King Charles III and his Queen Consort were surrounded by the late monarch's children and grandchildren and their partners, including the Prince and Princess of Wales and Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
On its journey into London, sections of busy roads such as the A40 came to a stop with drivers stood by the central reservation watching while the public lined the pavements.
It was an echo of scenes in Edinburgh, where thousands turned out to watch the Queen’s final journey after a long day of public ceremonies on Monday including the King’s first visit to the Scottish parliament.
Lord Ian Duncan, deputy speaker in the House of Lords, said crowds along the Royal Mile were “10-deep” while the streets surrounding the historic precinct were equally crammed with people.
“The sheer quantity of individuals moving into Edinburgh today [indicates] that there will be many tens – possibly even hundreds – of thousands of people who will wish to pay their respects to the late Queen,” Lord Duncan said.
“That is an extraordinary outpouring of respect, grief, celebration of an extraordinary woman, he continued.
“By goodness, they were 10-deep. They had to stop people trying to get there because it would have become dangerous.
“The streets around [the Royal Mile] were crammed and now, as people wait to walk past the coffin itself, the expectation of the numbers and the sheer quantity of humanity in Edinburgh today is extraordinary.”
While many people were warned to expect a 12-hour wait to see the monarch’s coffin at St Giles‘ Cathedral, those who queued overnight said their wait time was five or six hours.
Gavin Hamilton from Edinburgh said he was informed upon arrival it would likely be 13 hours before he would have the chance to pay respects to the Queen, but it soon became apparent the wait would only be five or six hours.
“It took about five and a quarter hours waiting in line to see her,” he said, adding he made it into the cathedral just before 3am.
“There were people in the queue with me who had travelled from Aberdeen, over 100 miles away, to do this. There were thousands of people in line at 12.30am at the start of the queue.
“The people were still [lining up] after 2.50 am when I got into the cathedral.”
Fellow mourner Mitch Stevenson, who queued for just under five hours with his sister, said they were “overwhelmed with the power and emotion of the occasion” after making it into St Giles‘ Cathedral just after 1am.
The siblings had initially been advised they would probably need to wait 11 hours to see the Queen’s coffin but were not deterred.
“It was a very important occasion for us – we lost our mum earlier this year and she would have loved to have been able to go, so we went for her memory also,” Mr Stevenson said.
“We were told [we would need to wait] about 11 hours. We accepted this but later found out it was not the case,” he added. “Some people, including myself, felt it was perhaps a little bit of scaremongering to get the crowd numbers down a bit.”
