Keith Payne VC reflects on his trip to London to farewell Queen Elizabeth

In a touching salute to his ‘old friend’ Queen Elizabeth, Mackay’s legendary VC hero says he will meet her again ‘later’. Read about his 10 days in London attending the Queen’s funeral.

Victoria Cross recipients Keith Payne and Ben Robert-Smith reunite in London before Queen Elizabeth Funeral. Facebook

On Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953, Mackay Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne was serving Australia in Korea.

At her funeral in 2022, he was in Westminster Abbey, next to kings and presidents and his fellow VC recipients, saluting the beloved monarch.

For Mr Payne, the historic moment was a “sorrowful” time.

“To say goodbye, I’ll join you in later life,” he said.

Mr Payne travelled to London for 10 days with his son Colin and stayed at the Union Jack Club in Waterloo.

Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne in London before the Queen’s funeral. Picture: Facebook

By his account, the streets were “packed” and so too all the trains, boats and planes.

“It was very very busy,” he said.

“I think half the population of the UK was in London for the occasion.”

“The police blocked off half to three quarters of a mile from the Abbey.

“People were just walking in the streets, trying to get into a position where they could see something.”

Mr Payne attended the famed Abbey on two occasions, once for a rehearsal and then again for the service.

“It was amazing just to see the overall attention that was being paid to the day of days,” he said.

“The thing that surprised me, after the Westminster Abbey people had done all their requiem masses and all the rest of it, they finished that and then they immediately all, and the choir, broke into ‘God Save the King’.

A Bearer Party of The Queen's Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards carries the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard, into Westminster Abbey in London on September 19, 2022, ahead of the State Funeral Service. Photo: Jack HILL / POOL / AFP)

“That sort of startled me a bit.”

Mr Payne, awarded the VC for his actions in Kontum province, Vietnam in 1969, found himself directly ahead of US President Joe Biden in the Abbey after the president and his wife arrived late and were forced to wait until after Mr Payne had passed to join the procession.

“The Queen would have probably put that on paper,” he said.

“She was the patron of the Victoria Cross and George Cross association.

“It did not worry me.

“It just happened the way it was supposed to happen.”

When talking about the Queen, Mr Payne is still struck by the odd-couple friendship they developed over the decades.

“It is a pretty awkward sort of thing to explain,” he said.

“Here you are, a bumbling old bloke from bloody Australia and you are talking quite freely and answering questions (with the Queen), like with a normal conversation with a lady in the street.”