Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: A Worthy Funeral

Tuesday, April 9, 2002 the world watched as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was laid to rest next to her beloved husband, Bertie, in George VI Memorial Chapel part of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. It was a day filled with sorrow for the loss of such a great woman and celebration for the joy that she brought to so many during her long life of service - with a smile. Most poignant of all for me was seeing her grandchildren and great-grandchildren rise to the occasion. I'm sure for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who is the only remaining member of what her father famously called 'we four', her family's coming together to pay their respects in such a dignified manner must be a source of great comfort at this very sad time. Funerals are really for the living and I believe that we were given what we needed to be able to say good-bye to this royal icon beginning with the lying in state and ending with her commital.

On Friday 400,000 people lined the streets to Westminster Hall in order to honor her by being part of the processing of her body to lie in state. Another 200,000 people showed their respect by waiting for hours to walk past her coffin as it lie in Westminster Hall. Her four grandsons, Charles and Andrew in their military uniforms while David and Edward wore morning suits, stood silent vigil just before 6:00 p.m. as their grandfather and uncles had for their great-grandfather, George V, in 1936. It was a powerful moment made more so as it was followed by the Queen's delivering a very personal tribute in the form of a speech from Buckingham Palace. She was visibly moved and ended her speech with thanks. "I thank you for the support you are giving me and my family as we come to terms with her death and the void she has left in our midst. I thank you also from my heart for the love you gave her during her life and the honour you now give her in death. May God bless you all."

The morning of the funeral saw over 400,000 people gathered around Westminster Abbey, some having stayed out all night in the cold, to pay homage to a woman who represented a full century of their history. At approximately 11:00 a.m. the ceremonies began with the carrying of the body from Westminster Hall into Westminster Abbey while in the background the Abbey's tenor bell continued tolling once each minute 'til it reached 101 - the number of years of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's life. Her son-in-law, Prince Philip, led the procession, which included his children Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Andrew, Duke of York, Edward, Earl of Wessex, Charles' sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, Anne's son, Peter Phillips and Princess Margaret's son, David, Viscount Linley accompanying her on this brief journey. Her coffin was processed up the same aisle that she had walked as a young bride in April of 1923 and placed upon the same catafalque in the Lantern on which her late husband's, George VI, had rested at his funeral in 1952.

The service was a very public one with 2,311 invited guests and family members in attendance. The guests too were a tribute to the Queen Mother's reach across the world touching people in all walks of life. Joining some 35 members of her royal family were two women who some would say have been shunned for too long - Sarah, Duchess of York and Camilla Parker Bowles. More than three decades of Prime Minister's were represented, foreign dignitaries, clergy from several denominations, ex-world motor racing champ, Nigel Mansell, Billy Tallon, her page of over 50 years, Sir Peter O'Sullevan, BBC horse racing commentator and jockey/author Dick Francis who famously rode Devon Loch in 1956.

The service itself was quite moving. There was a beautiful poem chosen by the Queen Mother herself describing the choice to think of what is lost or build on what was given. It ends with the line, "or you can do what she'd want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on." The Archbishop of Cantebury, Dr. George Carey, spoke of her "strength, dignity and laughter." He said that the verse of scripture that captures the Queen Mother best is found in Proverbs, "Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come." He praised her with these words as well; "It was a dignity that rested not on the splendid trappings of royalty but on a sense of the nobility of service." Her dignified service ended with the reading a stanza of the poem that her late husband, George VI, read in his 1939 Christmas Broadcast whose famous lines, "God out into the darkness and put you hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!" are on a plaque outside of the George VI Memorial Chapel. This area of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, is where the Queen Mother will be interred with her late husband. Princess Margaret's ashes are there as well.

More than a million people lined the funeral procession route from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle where the Queen Mother's body was taken after the service. As her body left the Abbey to the sound of the lamenting pipes and drums, her grandson, Prince Charles, followed her on her final journey in a Rolls-Royce. A Lancaster Bomber and two Spitfires did a fly by as the cortege journeyed up the Mall. This was a tribute to all the Queen Mother had done for and meant to her country during WWII. Guardsmen and the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery also saluted the cortege.

This very public funeral service was followed by a private family service at Windsor. It is said that the Queen took some time to grieve the loss of her mother and family privately after an arduous ten days of bravely facing the public and ensuring that her mother's send off was worthy of her life. I believe it was. The solemn ceremonial aspects leant dignity to the human grief at her loss and celebration of her life. She will be missed and her funeral will certainly be one of the memories we keep of her.

One thing that I found quite moving, was the poem that the Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, wrote for her. I actually cried at my PC when I read the third stanza, which really seemed to sum up what I was feeling. I share it with you now and provide the link so you can read its text in full: