Lady Sarah Chatto looked emotional as she stood alongside other Royal Family members at Westminster Hall, where Queen Elizabeth II lies in state. The daughter of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, was joined by her brother Earl Snowdon, and her 23-year-old son, Arthur. The royals watched as the coffin arrived from Buckingham Palace in a procession led by King Charles III.
Lady Sarah and her brother are the only maternal first cousins of King Charles III.
She is the youngest grandchild of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. At her birth, she was seventh in the line of succession to the British throne but now she is 27th.
The Queen was handed to the care of the nation for a period of lying in state after her family marched in homage behind her coffin as it was carried to Westminster Hall.
A gun carriage which had borne the coffins of her mother and father carried the late monarch to Westminster Hall – a procession of pomp and pageantry through the heart of the capital watched by tens of thousands who lined the route.
In bright summer sunshine, funeral marches played by military bands added to the solemn mood that left some mourners weeping, while others held up their camera phones to record the historic moment of the procession.
King Charles III led the Royal Family as they walked behind the coffin, draped with a Royal Standard, adorned with the Imperial State Crown and pulled on a gun carriage of The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.
Shortly after the arrival of the coffin at Westminster Hall, US President Joe Biden said he had spoken to the King on Wednesday to offer his condolences and shared the “great admiration of the American people” for the Queen.
Thousands of mourners flocked to see the moving sight of the Queen departing the official residence where she spent so much of her working life at the heart of the nation, with viewing areas declared full ahead of the procession starting.
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The new monarch walked in line with the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex.
Behind the King were the Queen’s grandsons in a line – Peter Phillips, the Duke of Sussex and the Prince of Wales – who were followed by the late monarch’s son-in-law Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, the Duke of Gloucester, the Queen’s cousin, and her nephew the Earl of Snowdon.
The Queen’s coffin was transported on the George Gun Carriage, which carried King George VI’s coffin from Sandringham Church to Wolferton Station in February 1952 and was used during the funeral of the Queen Mother in 2002.
The crowds were treated to the spectacle of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment processing past along with soldiers from the Life Guards and Blues and Royals on foot.
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Princess Anne walks shoulder-to-shoulder with her brothers
Charles, in his Field Marshal uniform, held onto the end of his Field Marshal Baton, as he walked in step without showing any emotion. Anne and Edward, also in military dress, and Andrew did not betray their emotions.
At Horse Guards Parade, crowds of mourners, many in tears, applauded as the Queen’s coffin and procession entered the vast ceremonial parade ground, with the bells of Big Ben continuing to sound every minute.
Harry, no longer a working royal, and his disgraced uncle Andrew were denied the chance to wear their military uniforms and a few minutes later when they passed the Cenotaph the royals in uniform saluted, while Harry bowed and Andrew performed “eyes right” and looked at the memorial.
The bearer party which carried the Queen’s coffin into Westminster Hall, and provided an escort, were soldiers flown back from Iraq to take part in the ceremony, because of their unique association with the monarch.
