Crowds mourn Queen Mother at funeral Tuesday
By AUDREY WOODS
Associated Press

LONDON — Kings, queens and royalty from around the world mourned the Queen Mother at her funeral Tuesday in ancient Westminster Abbey as huge crowds stood outside, honoring a woman beloved for her kindness and dedication to duty.

In a centuries-old burial service, bishops and priests gave thanks for the life of the Queen Mother Elizabeth, saying that she gave royalty a smiling face even in the darkest days of World War II.

“In gratitude we bid farewell to a greatly loved queen, for her grace, humanity and sympathy, for her courage in adversity, for the happiness she brought to so many,” said the Very Rev. Dr. Wesley Carr, Dean of Westminster.

Massed choirs in red and white chanted prayers as the congregation of 2,100 mourners led by Queen Elizabeth II and her family prayed for the Queen Mother in the darkened abbey. Four large candles burned at the corners of the coffin, which was placed before the high alter, covered in her personal flag.

Police said some 400,000 people stood outside the abbey or along the funeral route, many following the service and singing the hymns as it was broadcast over loudspeakers from the abbey.

In a great display of regal pageantry,192 bagpipers and drummers of royal regiments escorted the royal matriarch’s coffin to the abbey as people across Britain and around the world mourned her death March 30 at age 101. The shrill lament of the bagpipes was punctuated by the staccato beat of the drums.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. George Carey spoke for many when he told the congregation in the abbey that the Queen Mother had enriched the lives of many people through decades of service.

“Like the sun, she bathed us in her warm glow. Now that the sun has set and the cool of the evening has come, some of the warmth we absorbed is flowing back towards her,” he said in a sermon.

The 13th-century abbey’s great Tenor Bell was rung 101 times before the funeral to mark the age of the Queen Mother, its mournful tones echoing across the surrounding squares and streets crowded with mourners.

The Queen Mother’s coffin was carried to the Abbey on a gun carriage pulled by six black horses of the Royal Horse Artillery. The same gun carried the coffin of her husband King George VI at his funeral in 1952.

Princes Philip, Charles, Andrew and William along with most of the senior members of the royal family, many dressed in uniforms, walked silently behind the coffin as it was taken to the abbey. Queen Elizabeth, dressed in a simple black dress, greeted her mother’s coffin at the abbey.

Leaders and representatives from across the world attended the funeral in a great display of Europe’s royal houses. Some 25 foreign royals, including the monarchs of Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and royals from Asia and the Middle East, attended, along with first lady Laura Bush, and the leaders of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the representatives of many other countries.

Along the funeral route, tens of thousands of people stood silent, their heads bowed in remembrance, some dabbing away tears, as the coffin passed. Royal guards in red jackets and black bearskin hats, sailors and Royal Marines in deep blue and Royal Air Force troops in light blue lined the route.

credits

TCU Daily Skiff © 2002