Queen Elizabeth’s funeral: The last goodbyes after day-long display of grief and devotion

Queen Elizabeth’s reign and life of service symbolically ended with the snapping of the staff belonging to the Lord Chamberlain and the ­removal of her Imperial State Crown, orb and sceptre from her coffin.

Princess Charlotte and Prince George stand with their parents at Wellington Arch in London as the Queen’s coffin is transferred from the gun carriage to the state hearse for the journey to Windsor. Picture: AFP

Queen Elizabeth’s reign and life of service symbolically ended early on Tuesday (AEST), with the snapping of the staff belonging to the Lord Chamberlain and the ­removal of her Imperial State Crown, orb and sceptre from her coffin.

Elizabeth’s extraordinary and grandest farewell involved a daylong series of events – a high-level state funeral, a more ­intimate committal service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor and three dramatic step-perfect military processions – the likes of which most people have never seen before.

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of Windsor, and along the Long Walk, mirroring the exceptional turnout in central London that witnessed the procession as the King and the royal family walked behind the cortege.

In Windsor, Britain’s longest-serving monarch had three special well-wishers on the route, her fell pony Emma and the last two corgis, Sandy and Muick, now being looked after by Prince Andrew.

The service was a shorter, more sombre and personal affair than the state occasion five hours ­earlier in Westminster Abbey, with past and present members of the Queen’s royal household ­taking many of the seats in the 800-strong congregation.

By a side entrance to the chapel, in a field of wreaths from world leaders, a card from British Prime Minister Liz Truss read: “For a lifetime of devotion and duty we offer our deep and sincere gratitude.”

As the choir sang Psalm 121, eight pallbearers from the Grenadier Guards carried the coffin up the nave – past the tomb of the Queen’s grandparents, George V, who in 1917 had changed the family name to that of the castle, and Queen Mary – and carefully laid it on a catafalque in the quire where Charles I and Henry VIII are buried.

King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort. Picture: Getty Images

King Charles III sat to the south in the same seat where his mother had been for the funeral of Prince Philip in 2021, when she was pictured poignantly sitting alone.

David Conner, Dean of Windsor, led the service. After a hymn and a reading from Revelation, prayers were read by the Queen’s clergy – the rector of Sandringham, the minister of Crathie Kirk near Balmoral, and the chaplain of Windsor’s Royal Chapel.

Much of the music played during the service had been composed by former organists at the chapel, including several by William Henry Harris, who taught the young Princess ­Elizabeth to play the piano. The choir sang his motet to words by John Donne.

Then, in perfect silence, the crown jeweller, bargemaster and a serjeant-at-arms removed the ­instruments of state from the coffin and they were placed on the altar by the dean, completing the circle that had begun on June 2, 1953, when Geoffrey Fisher, archbishop of Canterbury, took the St Edward’s Crown from the altar in Westminster Abbey and placed it on the new Queen’s head. The lighter Imperial State Crown was used in Tuesday’s ceremony.

All readings and music had been chosen by the Queen, save the final hymn, Christ Is Made the Sure Foundation, which had been chosen by the King and dean after her death.

At the end of the hymn, the King placed the Queen’s Company camp colour of the Grenadier Guards on the coffin, where it was joined by the Lord Chamberlain’s wand of office, broken in two to mark his duty’s end and that she was ready to be buried as a simple soul.

Both objects were buried with the Queen.

The Imperial State Crown is removed from the coffin of Queen Elizabeth. Picture: Getty Images

As the dean began to read from Psalm 103, recalling the brevity of this mortal life, the coffin slowly began its descent to the royal vault. The Queen lay there until a ­private burial later that evening in the King George VI Memorial Chapel, alongside her parents, ­sister and husband.

King Charles appeared distressed when he witnessed his mother’s coffin being lowered into the vault.

Throughout the day there were many symbols of family love, ­including King Charles’s handwritten note among the hand-picked flowers from the palace gardens. The myrtle in the wreath was picked from a bush grown from a sprig that had been in the Queen’s wedding bouquet in 1947.

Princess Charlotte wore a ­petite horseshoe brooch given to her by her great-grandmother. The Princess of Wales wore a spec­tacular necklace from the late Queen’s collection, while the Duchess of Sussex wore little jewellery except for a pair of diamond and pearl earrings given to her by the Queen.