Queen Elizabeth II has been laid to rest and reunited with her beloved husband Prince Philip after a day of tears, cheers and pageantry saying farewell to Britain’s longest serving monarch.
The new King Charles and the royal family accompanied her coffin for a stately while emotional funeral at Westminster Abbey and then her final journey out of London, followed by a poignant committal service on the grounds of her Windsor Castle home before a private burial there.
She now rests in King George VI memorial chapel inside Windsor’s St George’s Chapel - not only beside her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, whose death she mourned sitting alone at his funeral in April last year, but also her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her sister Princess Margaret.
The committal included the Queen’s Bargemaster and a Serjeant of Arms removing from the coffin her sceptre and orb and finally the Imperial Street Crown she first wore at her coronation in 1953, before the Dean of Windsor placed them on the chapel’s high altar at 4.40pm.
Shortly afterwards her coffin was seen in public for the final time, when slowly lowered into the Royal Vault - ahead of the later non-televised burial.
Last night’s final act of dedication came after a day when hundreds of thousands of people came out on to the streets to celebrate her 70 years on the throne - not only in London but in towns and cities across Britain, following the Queen’s death aged 96 on September 8 at her Balmoral estate in Scotland.
