Funerals for senior royals have typically been very public affairs since World War II, with pomp, pageantry and popular fervor.
– 1952: King George VI. –
King George VI died on February 6, 1952. suddenly after a long illness at the age of 56.
At his funeral on 15 February, his coffin was taken by gun wagon from Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster, where he was laid out, to St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle at Paddington station in west London.
A silent crowd lined the route through the foggy streets of London during the three-hour procession. His eldest daughter, who became Queen Elizabeth II at 25, followed in a horse-drawn carriage.
A year later, on March 24, George’s mother, Dowager Queen Mary, died at the age of 85. For two days, 120,000 people paid homage in Westminster.
– 1979: Lord Mountbatten –
On August 27, 1979, Louis Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin and last Viceroy of India, was killed at the age of 79 by an Irish Republican Army bomb on his boat.
The assassination shook the UK. Mountbatten was a distinguished naval commander, uncle to Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, and mentor to the couple’s eldest son and heir, Prince Charles.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in London on September 5, along with representatives of the British Armed Forces, US Marines, French, Canadian, Indian and Burmese soldiers to bid him a solemn farewell.
An escort of six tanks took the coffin from Westminster Abbey to Waterloo railway station, where it was transported to Romsey, near Southampton in southern England, for burial at the town’s abbey.
– 1997: Princess Diana –
On September 6, 1997, the country came to a standstill for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris on August 31 at the age of 36.
Her death sent shockwaves around the world. Millions of people lined the streets and an estimated 2.5 billion viewers watched the service on television.
As the procession passed Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, who had been criticized for her dismissive initial reaction to the death of Prince Charles’ former wife, publicly bowed her head.
The couple’s two young sons, Princes William and Harry, walked behind their mother’s coffin with their heads bowed. Diana was buried at Althorp, the family’s historic home in Northamptonshire, on an island in the middle of a lake.
– 2002: Princess Margaret –
Led by Queen Elizabeth II’s frail 101-year-old mother, also known as Elizabeth, on 15 February 2002 the royal family buried the monarch’s younger sister Princess Margaret, who died six days earlier at the age of 71 after a series of had died of strokes.
The private funeral was attended by around 450 family and friends, including some 30 members of the Royal Family, including the Queen, Margaret’s ex-husband Lord Snowdon and their two children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto.
Despite concerns about her own health, the Queen Mother attended the service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
It was exactly 50 years since she buried her husband, King George VI. In a break with royal tradition, Margaret was cremated.
– 2002: The Queen Mother –
Just seven weeks after Margaret, the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, died in her sleep on March 30 in Windsor. Her funeral on April 9 marked the end of an era.
The royal matriarch was the last consort of the Empress of India and a link to a bygone age. She was much loved during World War II as a symbol of resistance against the Nazi enemy.
Over four days, more than 200,000 people flocked to her coffin to pay their respects. Her funeral in Westminster Abbey was attended by 2,000 people.
More than a million people lined the 37-kilometer (23-mile) funeral procession to Windsor, where she was buried with her husband in the King George VI Memorial Chapel and next to Margaret’s ashes.
– 2021: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh –
The 73-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II died on April 9, 2021, just months before his 100th birthday and after a long hospitalization with a heart condition.
Coronavirus restrictions limited his funeral on April 18 to just 30, with social distancing, face masks – and no public crowds.
The Duke’s coffin was taken to St George’s Chapel in a specially adapted Land Rover that he designed himself.
His remains were interred in the Royal Vault, Windsor, with instructions to be transferred to King George VI’s memorial chapel after the death of his wife.
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