The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II will take place at Westminster Abbey on Monday starting at 11 a.m. British local time. Westminster Abbey is the 753-year-old church where royals have traditionally been married, mourned and buried. About 15 minutes before the service starts, the queen’s Royal Standard-draped coffin topped with the Orb and the Scepter will be moved by the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy from Westminster Hall where it has been lying in state since Wednesday night. The carriage will then go towards Westminster Abbey. Incidentally, it is the same carriage that carried the coffin of her father, King George VI.
That procession, led by King Charles III and his siblings, will look very much like the procession to take the coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall on last Wednesday but shorter. The royals will be accompanied by ranks of uniformed troops, senior palace officials and even the queen’s pages as hundreds of thousands of mourners line the streets of central London to pay respects. In the abbey, about 2,000 guests will be waiting for the start of a service that will last about an hour.
Speaking at a news briefing, Edward Fitzalan-Howard, the Duke of Norfolk who is responsible for organizing state occasions such as this, said the funeral will reflect the “unique and timeless position” the queen held in the lives of millions, and the sense of loss shared around the world.