During the national Bank Holiday of Monday, 19 September 2022, at 10:52 AM British Standard Time on the final day of a ten-day period of national mourning, the funeral cortege of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will arrive at Westminster Abbey, after four days of Lying-in-State at Westminster Hall, for the State Funeral Service. The sovereign’s particularly long reign of seventy years has ensured that this is the first Royal State Funeral following King George VI’s funeral on 15 February 1952, since when there has been only one other State Funeral, that for Sir Winston Churchill on 30 January 1965. The first Royal State Funeral of the 21st century is also the first funeral of its kind to be held at Westminster Abbey since 1760.
A State Funeral is a solemn and dignified public ceremony, guided by strict rules of protocol, during which the nation pays homage to a deceased sovereign or another person of national significance. Other deceased members of the Royal family are entitled to a ceremonial funeral, which can approximate to a State Funeral, albeit with some elements missing. A Royal State Funeral requires parliamentary approval and the prior consent of the departed monarch, who usually has a say in the organisation of the event, while royal ceremonial funerals may proceed without such formalities. Of note, Prince Philip, who died in April 2021, did not request a State Funeral.
During the 20th century, Royal State Funerals were provided for Queen Victoria in 1901, King Edward VII in 1910, King George V in 1936, and King George VI in 1952. King Edward VIII, having abdicated in 1936, was the only monarch of the century not to have a Royal State Funeral since George I, who died abroad-in Osnabruck in 1727. Instead, the Duke of Windsor had a private royal funeral in 1972.
Private individuals deemed worthy of State Funerals in the past have included the scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1727); various military figures (Admiral Blake in 1657, Lord Nelson in 1806, Lord Napier of Magdala in 1890, Earl Roberts of Kandahar in 1914, Earl Haig in 1928); former prime ministers (Duke of Wellington in 1852, Lord Palmerston in 1865, William Ewart Gladstone in 1898); a divisive politician (Lord Carson in 1935), and the heroic nurse Edith Cavell, in 1919.
A State Funeral is coordinated by the Earl Marshal of England, a hereditary position currently held by the Roman Catholic Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, who oversees the College of Arms, while a ceremonial funeral is the responsibility of Andrew Parker, Baron Parker of Minsmere, the Lord Great Chamberlain- senior officer of the Royal Household. The College of Arms itself consists of thirteen full-time Officers of Arms-in-Ordinary, including three kings of arms, six heralds, and four Pursuivants, many the bearers of quaint heraldic titles. Funeral director services for the Queen’s funeral are being provided by the firm of Leverton and Sons, independent family funeral directors since 1789 and with a head office at Camden in North London, who have served as funeral directors to the Royal Household since 1991, arranging ceremonial funerals for Princess Diana, Princess Margaret, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
The coffin bearing the deceased sovereign was taken in a military procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall on 14 September, for a four-day period of Lying-in State, to allow members of the general public to pay their respects in person. During this period, the coffin will rest in the centre of the hall on a catafalque, a raised wooden platform on horizontal rollers, while units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, Foot Guards, or Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment maintain round-the-clock vigil, for six hours at a time. The first commoners were allowed into Westminster Hall from 5 00 PM on 14 September, while long, orderly, and good-humoured lines of people, with numbered and colour-coded wristbands to guarantee their places in the queue, waited patiently outside for their brief view of the coffin inside the hall. The oak casket was draped with the Royal Standard, a quartered flag which bears the royal arms of England (three gold lions on a red field) in the top left and bottom right corners, the royal arms of Scotland (red lion rampant on a gold field) in the top right, and the royal arms of Ireland (gold harp on a blue field) in the bottom left; Wales is missing! The ornate Imperial State Crown, made up of 2,868 diamonds and including the 317-carat Cullinan II diamond, rested on a purple velvet cushion on top, alongside a wreath of white flowers (roses, dahlias) and various forms of foliage.
On 19 September, the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy carrying the Royal coffin will be towed by a team of 98 Royal Naval ratings, referred to as the Sovereign’s Guard, rather than by horses. A precedent for this practice was set during the State Funeral of Queen Victoria on 2 February 1901, when the horses brought in for the occasional proved somewhat temperamental in the cold, requiring sailors to step in and convey the gun carriage to Windsor Castle after unharnessing them.
The State Funeral Service, with an anticipated guest list of around 2,000, will be attended by British Royal family members, high-level foreign dignitaries (Presidents, Prime Ministers, top politicians and diplomats), visiting royalty, and a select group of distinguished invitees. The service will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster, and the Archbishop of Canterbury will deliver a sermon. The proceedings will end with a bugler sounding the Last Post, followed by a national two-minute silence from 11:55 AM, broken by another bugle call (Reveille), the national anthem, and a lament played by the Queen’s piper. Once all is over, the departed Queen will embark on her final journey, via Hyde Park Corner, to be reunited with Prince Philip in the royal vault in the King George VI Memorial Chapel in Windsor, thereby closing a major chapter in Britain’s regal history. On the day, we can most certainly expect a dignified and disciplined ceremony, distinguished by colourful pageantry and quirky medieval rituals, in a most fitting farewell for Britain’s longest-serving monarch.
Ashis Banerjee