Our longest-serving monarch will have the first state funeral for more than half a century at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19.
As well as being the first since Winston Churchill’s in 1965, it will also be the first at the abbey for any monarch since George II’s way back in 1760.
Since then such funerals have been held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. But the Queen, who played an active role in planning her final send-off, decided hers should be in the much larger abbey.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has spoken of the ‘affection which the Queen had for Scotland and that Scotland had for the Queen.’
Mr Blackford, who addressed MPs in the Commons wearing a kilt, paid tribute to the Queen.
His Majesty is now home. Almost 25 years ago to this very day, our previous monarch had stopped her car short of Buckingham Palace, climbed out to inspect a mountain of flowers – and transformed the mood of a grieving nation in an instant.
And so it was that her successor did exactly the same yesterday afternoon, although, as he admitted to one well-wisher: ‘I’ve been dreading this.’
Britain’s £3billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth fired a 96-gun salute to mark the Queen’s death on Friday after guns were fired at Cardiff, Edinburgh and Hillsborough castles as well as Gibraltar upon news of the passing of the elderly monarch.
Photos provided by the Ministry of Defence taken from a Merlin Mk2 helicopter show 820 Naval Air Squadron firing the gun salute in tribute to the Queen, who was Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces as well as Head of State and Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Salutes were fired on five others ships, as well as locations including Cardiff Castle, Edinburgh Castle, Hillsborough Castle, York, Portsmouth and Gibraltar.