The details of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral have been confirmed including personal touches requested by the late monarch and a 100-strong team of Royal Navy sailors set to haul Her Majesty’s coffin to Westminster Abbey on a gun carriage.
Under a plan meticulously drawn up over many years with the input of the late monarch and confirmed by Buckingham Palace, the coffin bearing the Queen will be taken on the morning of Monday, 19 September from Westminster Hall, where she has been lying in state since Wednesday and where King Charles and his siblings will mount vigil on Friday evening.
The state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Monday is likely to be one of the biggest single events staged in Britain since the Second World War.
A congregation of more than 2,000 will be led by King Charles in saying a formal farewell to the UK’s longest-serving sovereign before her body is taken to Windsor Castle for burial alongside her late husband the Duke of Edinburgh.
The Earl Marshal, the Duke of Norfolk, said organising the event was “both humbling and daunting” but the solemnity of the last few days of mourning and the constitutional process was the “envy of the world”. The duke, with the hereditary position of Earl Marshal, said Monday's service would aim to “unite people across the globe and resonate with people of all faiths”.
Stephen Prince, head of the Naval Historical Branch, who has been advising the funeral planners, said: “We advise on what has been done before, not necessarily as a constraint completely but just so we know where we are starting from, so it's not an immobile process, but you want to have a good sense of where you come from.
“It would be really hard to come up with anybody having closer links with the Royal Navy because the Queen is the daughter of a naval officer and she's married to a naval officer and two of her sons then serve as naval officers.
“So quite apart from the inevitability of the monarchy there is such a strong family connection.”
Tens of thousands of people are expected to line the route as the Queen’s coffin is then taken in procession up Whitehall, down the Mall and up Constitution Hill to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner, where it will be transferred to the state hearse for the journey to Windsor.
Below are the confirmed details in full of the day and a timeline of key events:
End of lying-in-state
Before the end of the Queen’s lying in state, a vigil will be mounted by King Charles III, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex at 7.30pm on Friday, 16 September.
The last members of the public will be able to file past the coffin to pay their respects until 6.30am marking the end of the Queen’s lying-in-state.
Following this, the doors will close in preparation for the procession to Westminster Abbey where the State Funeral service will take place.
Route
At 10.35am the coffin will be lifted from the catafalque where it has stood in Westminster Hall - draped with the Royal Standard and carrying the imperial state crown, orb and sceptre - by pall-bearers of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, of which the Queen was company commander.
Her Majesty will then be moved from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey at 10.44am on Monday for the funeral service.
The route to Westminster Abbey, which will be lined by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, will go from Parliament Square to Broad Sanctuary and the Sanctuary.
Procession
The King will lead the procession to Westminster Abbey which will be made up of 200 musicians from the massed Pipes and Drums of Scottish and Irish Regiments, the Brigade of Gurkhas, and the Royal Air Force, with the Princess Royal, Duke of York and Earl of Wessex.
Behind the quartet will be the Queen’s grandsons Peter Phillips, the Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales.
They will be followed by the late monarch’s son-in-law Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the Duke of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin, and her nephew the Earl of Snowdon.
The Queen’s coffin will be carried on the State Gun Carriage, a 123-year-old apparatus towed by 98 Royal Navy sailors in a tradition dating back to the funeral of Queen Victoria.
The Procession will arrive at the West Gate of Westminster Abbey at 10.52am where pall bearers will left the coffin from the carriage and carry it into Westminster Abbey to begin the service.
Westminster Abbey Service
Doors will open at 8am to allow guests - so far among them US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron - to take their seats.
Heads of state and overseas government representatives, including foreign royal families, governors-general and realm prime ministers will gather initially at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and travel under “collective arrangements” to Westminster Abbey.
Other representatives of the realms and the Commonwealth, the Orders of Chivalry including recipients of the Victoria Cross and George Cross, government, parliament, devolved parliaments and assemblies, the Church, and Her Majesty’s patronages will form the congregation, along with further representatives from law, emergency services, public servants and professions, and public representatives, totalling 2,000 people.
Members of the British royal family who are not part of the procession from Westminster Hall will have arrived at the abbey and been escorted to their seats in the South Lantern.
At 11.00am, the State Funeral service will begin led by the Dean of Westminster. Prime minister Liz Truss and the secretary-general of the Commonwealth are both expected to give readings at the service.
Towards the end of the service at approximately 11.55am, the Last Post will sound followed by a two minutes’ silence and the National Anthem to finish around 12 noon.
Windsor Private Service
Following the state funeral, the coffin will be followed by the King, the Queen Consort, the Prince and Princess of Wales and members of the royal family who will walk in the procession to Wellington Arch where it will be driven to Windsor on the state hearse.
The route to Wellington Arch will be lined by Armed Forces from Westminster Abbey to the top of Constitution Hill in addition to minute guns fired in Hyde Park.
A committal service will take place at St George's Chapel, Windsor, Castle at 4pm on Monday.
At 7.30pm the Queen will be buried in King George VI's chapel in Windsor Castle in a private service.
The Queen's final resting place will be St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle alongside her husband of 70 years, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
Philip is currently in the Royal Vault but will be moved to be with his wife.
Full timeline
6.30am: Queen's lying-in-state ends marking the public’s last opportunity to pay respects to the late monarchy. Preparations for the Westminster Abbey service begins.
8am: The doors of Westminster Abbey will be opened for the congregation to begin taking their seats.
10.35am: The coffin will be moved from Westminster Hall to the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy.
10.44am: The gun carriage will set off and will be drawn by Royal Naval officers followed by the King, members of the Royal Family, members of the King’s household and household of the Prince of Wales.
11am: The State Funeral will begin, conducted by Dean of Westminster.
11.55am: The Last Post will sound, followed by a two-minutes' silence throughout the United Kingdom ending with the National Anthem.
Noon: The service will end and the coffin will be followed by the King, the Queen Consort, the Prince and Princess of Wales and members of the Royal Family who are to walk in the Procession to Wellington Arch
12.15pm: The procession will set off for Wellington Arch with the route lined by the Armed Forces from Westminster Abbey to the top of Constitution Hill at the Commonwealth Memorial Gates. The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery will witness the departure of the Coffin to Windsor.
3.06pm: The State Hearse will approach Shaw Farm Gate on Albert Road, Windsor
3.10pm: The Procession will step off.
3.20pm: Governors-General and Realm Prime Ministers will arrive at the West Door, St. George’s Chapel and will be escorted to their seats in the Nave.
3.25pm: Members of the Royal Family not walking in the outdoor procession will arrive at the chapel.
3.40pm: The King and those in the Procession join as it passes into Engine Court. As before, the Queen Consort with the Princess of Wales, and the Duchess of Sussex with the Countess of Wessex will follow by car.
3:53 pm: The bearer party will lift the Coffin from the State Hearse, from where it will be carried in procession up the West Steps.
4pm: The Committal Service will begin. At the conclusion, the King and the Royal Family will depart from the Galilee Porch for Windsor Castle.
7.30pm: A private burial service will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor, attended by the King and members of the Royal Family. Her Majesty is to be buried together with her late husband, The Duke of Edinburgh, at the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
