Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 19: World leaders have assembled in London for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral today. The monarch’s casket has been in repose at Westminster Hall since Wednesday night and will remain there until 11 a.m.
For the state funeral, which will start at 3:30 pm, a formal schedule has been created (IST). Around midnight, a private funeral service for her will be held.
The queen’s coffin will be transported from Westminster Hall to the gun carriage outside before entering Westminster Abbey by eight members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. The regiment is one of the five infantry regiments that make up the Queen’s (now King’s) Life Guard and is among the oldest in the British army. The troops of the regiment typically don towering bearskin hats; they modelled their attire after the grenadiers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, who were routed at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Service Equerries to the Queen, attendants who support the royals in performing official responsibilities, will accompany the soldiers.
The burial will put an end to 11 days of widespread national mourning in the United Kingdom, during which the royal family’s private grief was exposed in the spotlight of intense global interest.
At the state burial, world leaders will attend alongside the British royal family, the country’s political elite, and representatives of the judicial system, military, and nonprofit sector. Around 125 theatres in Britain will broadcast the burial, while parks, squares, and cathedrals will also set up viewing screens for the significant ceremonial event, the government announced on Saturday.
