The Queen's final resting place has seen her name, birth date and death date inscribed into a ledger stone. The George VI Memorial Chapel in Windsor now bears the names of Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip.
The names and dates of the Queen's father George VI and his wife the Queen Mother are also seen on the stone. The late monarch was laid to rest together with the Duke of Edinburgh on Monday (September 19) evening.
After the state funeral for the country at Westminster Abbey and committal service in Windsor, the Queen was buried in a private service attended by the King and the royal family. The ledger stone, which is new, has replaced the black stone slab set into the floor which had featured the names George VI and Elizabeth in gold lettering.
The fresh stone now contains, in list form, “George VI 1895-1952” and “Elizabeth 1900-2002” followed by a metal Garter Star, and then “Elizabeth II 1926-2022” and “Philip 1921-2021”. All four royals were members of the Order of the Garter, which has St George’s Chapel as its spiritual home.
When Philip died 17 months ago, his coffin was interred in the Royal Vault of St George’s, ready to be moved to the memorial chapel when the Queen died. This is a pale stone annexe added on to the north side of the building behind the North Quire Aisle in 1969.
The Queen’s sister 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 weeks later. Windsor Castle is currently closed to the public and will reopen on September 29.
Charles is believed to have flown to Scotland on Tuesday with the Queen Consort to grieve privately, as the royal family continues its period of mourning for the Queen. He and Camilla were pictured in a vehicle arriving at RAF Northolt, reportedly bound for Balmoral – the estate on which the King’s Scottish home of Birkhall is located.
Charles decreed on September 9, the day after the Queen died following her 70-year reign, that a period of mourning would be observed until seven days after the funeral. Members of the royal family are not expected to carry out official engagements, and flags at royal residences will remain at half-mast until 8am after the final day of royal mourning.
They have been left bereft by the death of their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and at times their grief was palpable, with Charles looking emotional and close to tears at the state funeral. He had travelled extensively in the days after his mother’s death, as he toured the UK in his role as the nation’s new monarch.
No date has been fixed for his coronation, but it is expected that, in line with royal precedent and due to the large amount of planning involved, there will be at least several months until Charles’s crowning. In a reflection of the outpouring of love and grief since the Queen’s death, it is estimated that around a quarter of a million people paid their respects in person by viewing her coffin as it lay in state in London.
Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said on Tuesday that her department was still “crunching the numbers” as to how many people had queued for hours to process past the coffin at Westminster Hall, but that she believed it was around 250,000. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said it would set out the final number “in due course”.
St John Ambulance said that, together with London Ambulance Service – both of which helped during the national period of mourning, including caring for those in long queues to see the coffin – it had treated more than 2,000 people and taken around 200 of them to hospital, mainly due to existing health conditions, trips, slips and falls.
