Queen Mother's funeral set for April 9
The Queen Mother's funeral will take place on Tuesday April 9, Buckingham Palace has announced.
Officials say there will be national mourning up to the day of the funeral, which will start at 11.30am.
It will be a royal ceremonial funeral, not a state funeral, and will take place at Westminster Abbey. The coffin will then travel by road to Windsor for a private committal service and interment at St George's Chapel there.
At 4pm today, the Queen Mother's coffin will be carried from Royal Lodge, Windsor, where she died, to the nearby Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park. Later, members of the Royal Family will attend an evensong service at the chapel.
The coffin will rest at Windsor until Tuesday, when it will be taken to the Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace in central London where, just seven weeks ago, the coffin of Princess Margaret rested.
On Friday morning, the coffin will be carried in a ceremonial procession to Westminster Hall where it will lie in state from Friday afternoon until the evening of Monday April 8. The funeral will take place the next day.
The Queen Mother will finally be laid to rest alongside her husband in the George VI Memorial Chapel at St George's, the spiritual home of British royalty.
The ashes of Princess Margaret will be taken from the Royal Vault in St George's and interred in the memorial chapel at the same time. In accordance with the Queen Mother's wishes, there will be no official memorial service.
The Prince of Wales, just back from an Alpine skiing holiday cut short in Klosters, Switzerland, this afternoon visited Royal Lodge to pay his private respects at his grandmother's coffin before it is moved to the small Royal Chapel of All Saints.
The Queen Mother's staff and workers are expected to be able to visit the chapel tomorrow, when royal gun salutes are planned in her memory. Family mourning will be observed by members of the Royal Family until April 19, after Princess Margaret's planned memorial service.
