Prince Philips Funeral.

LizH13

Annaram1 yes you are wrong. The bearer team that lead the coffin from the castle to the hearse was. Not sure how you tell when all heads were bent.

And represention from the Royal Gurkha Rifles.

It was a fitting service for a man who served his wife, our Queen and this country well, just how he wanted it!
Loved his choice of music.

Other than the initial announcement on tv, I've not watched any of the coverage over the past week but did plan to watch the funeral.
I'd planned to set the Sky Q to record it then it broke on Wednesday and I'm not getting an engineer until 30/4 so I guess (if I'm lucky) I might be able to download an 'on demand' copy of it.

I just wish they had let us listen to the marching bands at the beginning instead of drowning them.out with commentary telling us for the 2000th time that he served in the war.
Still trying to.work.out why I.burst into.tears at the last post.

Most probably saw a chance to start another argument....Never mind I was proud watching the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Our armed forces at their best but then again they always are.

I'm not a royalist but I thought they did him proud. A lovely tasteful ceremony.
She did look frail.
Bless her

I'm not a royalist nor am I against the royal family but must say I agree that it was beautifully carried out. I shed a tear when "I vow to thee my county" played and when Charles and Anne were walking behind the hearse, Prince Charles looked heartbroken. The lone piper was another moment to shed a tear. Think I realised that the Queen and Prince Philip have been a constant throughout my life and suddenly it changed and it hit me that I am old and am nearer my end than my beginning which was very sobering. Another who was proud to be British yesterday. ??

Wonderful, sad but dignified.

I was busy in the garden but set my phone for 2o’clock so that I could watch the whole thing. I thought it very moving, it brought tears to my eyes. The men looked elegant in morning dress, I’m glad the Queen put a stop to potential embarrassment there, though I did wonder why The Princess Royal had such a huge set of medals on her chest. She’s never served in the armed forces so must be honorary ones.

I loved the pipes, the bugles and that wonderful poem from Ecclesiasticus. A beautiful farewell to the Duke.
I’ll miss him, so can’t imagine how the Queen is feeling.

SueDonim

I thought it was a very moving ceremony, the music and the readings were lovely. Tears sprang immediately to my eyes when the camera showed the Queen looking so tiny as she sat alone with head bowed.

In some ways, I thought it better without all the politicians and dignitaries and so on that you’d normally get at such a time. You knew everyone there had cared about and loved Prince Philip.

I agree. So much more moving with just the family there.

Daisend1

I wept for her majesty. To be denied a comforting arm around her, the holding of another hand, watching her husband laid to rest, never was there a time she needed this more.

Apparently it was the Queen's choice to be seated alone. She had her lady in waiting with her in the car and could have had her in the chapel if she had wanted. The Queen probably wanted her grief to be private, she's not known for showing emotion after all.
If the service had us weeping imagine how she was feeling, but not wanting anyone to see.

A brilliant funeral it seemed to be just as Prince Philip would have hoped for, even the weather behaved well. As a Scot I was so proud of the piper from Braemar playing him on the last bit of his journey a very fitting tribute. The Queen has appeared alone before but she looked lonely for the first time and a bit swamped and lost in St. George's. It will be interesting to see how the family handle things from now, especially Prince Harry who will now have to weigh up life in LA against a life he was born for.

I definitely shed a few tears to see the tiny figure of our poor widowed Queen sat on her own at the funeral. She looked so small and vulnerable - surely at least one of the family could have sat with her to offer support? It was a beautiful funeral though with lovely music and hymns - all chosen by the Duke himself. It seems he had his funeral planned to be exactly as he wanted it. RIP Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Pomp and ceremony, but slightly scaled-down, beautiful marching bands, displays of rich uniforms, solemnness when appropriate, but the most important part was that it was exactly how Prince Philip wanted it, he chose what was going to happen at his own funeral, and the people he chose to enforce his wishes did so to perfection. I'm sure a memorial service will take place in due course, when covid allows, but if not we can all remember this great man in our own way.

The Queen has survived a lot in her long life. She may be tiny, but she could say like Queen Elizabeth I said to the troops at Tilbury when they mustered against the Armada, "I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too"

It was her choice to sit alone. She is good at using symbolism (some of her outfits had symbolic touches to suit the occasion) and maybe that was partly to demonstrate how alone a widow is, not just at the funeral, but even more after it.

One of her three sons was in fact only a few seats away from her. The most shown photograph shows empty seats along the rest of the row, but in other photos, Prince Andrew was quite near, and some news reports said he was two seats away.

Did Andrew sit in the choir stalls ?

Anniebach

Did Andrew sit in the choir stalls ?

Here’s the plan

And

Hope this helps.

Thank you, I thought the Queen sat at the end of the row with a walkway between her and Charles, when Elegran said some reports said Andrew was two seats away from her I thought my rather bad eyesight had missed seeing him in the same stall, but he wasn’t. Thanks again

along from the queen was Andrew then anne and husband then Harry. all suitably spaced of course....so, the queen was not so alone. Opposite the queen was Charles and camilla then Edward Sophie and children then William and Catherine . All looks very different on the plan in the press and that Ixion has shown above.

It was often hard to spot the Queen, in her black coat, hat and mask. Sometimes it was only the sight of her white service sheet that you realised whereabouts she was.

Anie I think what I read may have said that there were two seats between the Queen and the Duke of York. Empty seats. That is how it looks in Ixion's plan.

Yes Elegran you were right though , he was two seats away, the seating makes sense now

The media has a lot of photos with no-one else at all in the same row as the Queen, just empty seats all the way along. I don't know when that one was taken (maybe a rehearsal?) but it gives the impression that there was no-one else anywhere near her, a bit different from having Andrew two seats away!That wouldn't be such a dramatic picture, of course.