RIP HM Queen Elizabeth II

[BrandanM]

I found the whole day incredibly moving. What an amazing send-off for a truly remarkable Monarch.

Seeing the Royal Navy pulling the State Gun Carriage to Westminster Abbey to the glorious sound of the Massed Pipes and Drums really got to me.

God Bless Her Majesty.

God Save the King.

 

[birchesgreen]

I found the whole day incredibly moving. What an amazing send-off for a truly remarkable Monarch.

Seeing the Royal Navy pulling the State Gun Carriage to Westminster Abbey to the glorious sound of the Massed Pipes and Drums really got to me.

Likewise, it was quite extraordinary. Also the lone piper at the end of the ceremonies.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

I thought the funeral was excellent, especially the latter part in Windsor. Hard to put into words what it felt like, seeing the instruments of state removed and placed back on cushions for safe keeping. An outstanding occasion.

That removal of the state regalia from the coffin before it was committed to the tomb was very powerful. We all go before God as equals. We bring nothing into this world; we can surely take nothing out.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Who's the guy about two feet taller than everyone else? He was marching a few feet in front of the hearse.

The BBC subtitles seemed to suggest he was one of the senior Royal Household staff, unless they were referring to the man on his left; that wasn't clear to me as the subtitle vanished very quickly before I could fully read it.

One thing I'm wondering - was the the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Archbishop of York whho dropped his readings card on the floor behind the altar right at the start of the service? That was just the sort of minor "something going wrong" at a formal occasion which the Queen always enjoyed throughout her lifetime...

 

[Ediswan]

That was just the sort of minor "something going wrong" at a formal occasion which the Queen always enjoyed throughout her lifetime...

Some of the horses were getting a bit impatient along the Long Walk.

Personally, I watched the Windsor service in the hope of seeing what was stopping the Orb rolling away. Very simple, there is a boss on the bottom, not normally shown.

 

[swt_passenger]

Seeing the Royal Navy pulling the State Gun Carriage to Westminster Abbey to the glorious sound of the Massed Pipes and Drums really got to me.

I’m impressed by the way there must have been an efficient means to re-learn the necessary skills to man the gun carriage, given it was last done in 1979 there must have been about 2 generations of personnel passed through the service since then.

I believe unlike the other services apart from the small nucleus of drill instructors there are no dedicated state ceremonial specialists, they’ll have been a scratch team of men and women brought together only 10 days ago.

 

[Gloster]

Who's the guy about two feet taller than everyone else? He was marching a few feet in front of the hearse.

According to the Evening Standard via my Yahoo news feed he is Matthew Magee, a former Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen. He is 7’ 2”.

 

[Cloud Strife]

That removal of the state regalia from the coffin before it was committed to the tomb was very powerful. We all go before God as equals. We bring nothing into this world; we can surely take nothing out.

I found that to be incredibly powerful. It was hard to watch, I'm not religious, but it was enough to bring a lump to my throat.

I have to say, the one thing I really enjoyed from the funeral was that other churches were represented too. The place for the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was something that I genuinely didn't expect to see, although in hindsight, it's clear that the Royal Family is on very good terms with the CoS.

 

[Ediswan]

I’m impressed by the way there must have been an efficient way to re-learn the necessary skills to man the gun carriage, given it was last done in 1979 there must have been about 2 generations of personnel passed through the service since then.

I was impressed by how well the spacing was kept between the elements of the procession. There were times when some elements were all but marking time. I do wonder if there were a few inconspicuous earpieces present.

 

[Bovverboy]

According to the Evening Standard via my Yahoo news feed he is Matthew Magee, a former Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen. He is 7’ 2”.

Thanks for the info. Having become aware of his name, there seems to be quite a bit about him online.
I'm not sure what you meant in calling him a 'former' Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, he was apparently in that position up to her death and I presume that means he will automatically be Assistant Private Secretary to King Charles.

 

[GusB]

Thanks for the info. Having become aware of his name, there seems to be quite a bit about him online.
I'm not sure what you meant in calling him a 'former' Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, he was apparently in that position up to her death and I presume that means he will automatically be Assistant Private Secretary to King Charles.

I would be reluctant to make that assumption, given that much of C3's staff have just been issued with redundancy notices.

 

[Bovverboy]

I would be reluctant to make that assumption, given that much of C3's staff have just been issued with redundancy notices.

It's the existing Clarence House staff who are facing redundancy. No-one else is under threat, to my knowledge.

 

[duncanp]

At least we know what to do with the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square now.

No more of those questionable "..art installations...".

A statue of Queen Elizabeth II should be installed there permanently.

I think a public subscription would cover a larger proportion, if not all, of the cost.

 

[Gloster]

I'm not sure what you meant in calling him a 'former' Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, he was apparently in that position up to her death and I presume that means he will automatically be Assistant Private Secretary to King Charles.

That is what the report said. I presume that the convention is that he, or anyone else, is not referred to as being a member of King Charles’ staff until they are so formally appointed. TUPE presumably does not apply.

 

[Butts]

I wonder who will come out top in viewing figures of the Funeral and days events ?

My hunch it will be a BBC landslide.

 

[Geezertronic]

I presume that there have been rehearsals for this event for many years, and I found the marches in particular very powerful. Not so much enamoured with the church side of proceedings, but the processions were a sight to behold and were a testament to the years of planning put in place and to all of those involved

 

[najaB]

I presume that there have been rehearsals for this event for many years, and I found the marches in particular very powerful.

Planning, yes. Rehearsals, not so much. It would be pretty hard to rehearse something of that scale without it being very obvious.

 

[DelayRepay]

I'm not sure what you meant in calling him a 'former' Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, he was apparently in that position up to her death and I presume that means he will automatically be Assistant Private Secretary to King Charles.

That is what the report said. I presume that the convention is that he, or anyone else, is not referred to as being a member of King Charles’ staff until they are so formally appointed. TUPE presumably does not apply.

He can be both. Even if he had been appointed as Assistant Private Secretary to the King, he is still a former Assistant Private Secretary to the Queen, and it is presumably due to this (former) role that he was in the procession.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Sep 2022 ==

I wonder who will come out top in viewing figures of the Funeral and days events ?

My hunch it will be a BBC landslide.

Indeed - for occasions like this, I would not even think to turn to ITV or Sky. The BBC will always win when it comes to covering these great state occasions.

I think they were all using pooled pictures anyway so it would have only been the commentary and guests in between parts of the service that varied.

I have to say, I thought the BBC's approach of very minimal commentary during the main parts of proceedings was very welcome.

 

[westv]

I wonder who will come out top in viewing figures of the Funeral and days events ?

My hunch it will be a BBC landslide.

Does anybody know when the figures are due?

 

[DelayRepay]

Does anybody know when the figures are due?

Not sure when the official UK figures are due, but the estimates I have seen are 4.1 billion people globally, which is more than half the world's population and, I think, the largest audience for a single event ever.

 

[AlterEgo]

I found that to be incredibly powerful. It was hard to watch, I'm not religious, but it was enough to bring a lump to my throat.

I have to say, the one thing I really enjoyed from the funeral was that other churches were represented too. The place for the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was something that I genuinely didn't expect to see, although in hindsight, it's clear that the Royal Family is on very good terms with the CoS.

Very good terms? More than that, the Queen was a member of the CoS and it is in fact part of the jiggery-pokery of the British constitution that the monarch changes their religious affiliation north of the border. Queen Elizabeth was, therefore, a Presbyterian when she died.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Sep 2022 ==

Not sure when the official UK figures are due, but the estimates I have seen are 4.1 billion people globally, which is more than half the world's population and, I think, the largest audience for a single event ever.

I expect that is inflated given it was supplied by a quack (sorry can't find the source but saw it on Twitter). I think it may be a figure of "everyone who would have had a reasonable opportunity to watch it". It was nonetheless an A++ grade world event, being the only thing shown on TV in my Swedish airport hotel yesterday.

 

[Butts]

Very good terms? More than that, the Queen was a member of the CoS and it is in fact part of the jiggery-pokery of the British constitution that the monarch changes their religious affiliation north of the border. Queen Elizabeth was, therefore, a Presbyterian when she died.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 Sep 2022 ==


I expect that is inflated given it was supplied by a quack (sorry can't find the source but saw it on Twitter). I think it may be a figure of "everyone who would have had a reasonable opportunity to watch it". It was nonetheless an A++ grade world event, being the only thing shown on TV in my Swedish airport hotel yesterday.

Wonder if it was shown in The Russian Federation and North Korea ?

 

[DelayRepay]

Very good terms? More than that, the Queen was a member of the CoS and it is in fact part of the jiggery-pokery of the British constitution that the monarch changes their religious affiliation north of the border. Queen Elizabeth was, therefore, a Presbyterian when she died.

Also worth remembering that the monarch takes an oath to protect the independence of the Church of Scotland as their first official act after being proclaimed King.

More generally, I would imagine the King would have wished for other faiths to be represented - he did historically say that he wished to be the Defender of Faith, rather than the Defender of The Faith.

I expect that is inflated given it was supplied by a quack (sorry can't find the source but saw it on Twitter). I think it may be a figure of "everyone who would have had a reasonable opportunity to watch it". It was nonetheless an A++ grade world event, being the only thing shown on TV in my Swedish airport hotel yesterday.

Almost sounds like they got Professor Ferguson of Covid fame to provide the estimate!

But irrespective of numbers, I cannot think of a TV event that would have had this level of global interest. And of course events now will have higher viewing figures than historically, simply because more people have access to technology to be able to watch them. It is not like the days of the Queen's coronation when most houses did not have their own TV.

I found I watched far more than I planned to - I was going to watch the Westminster service then go our for a walk or bike ride in the afternoon, but ended up watching the full day's proceedings. Speaking to others this morning, that seems to be quite common.

 

[RichJF]

The Grenadier Guards pallbearers did an incredible job. Think how heavy that coffin was with the state regalia & being lined with lead. Most of the world's eyes on the 10 soldiers slowly marching down the aisles.

The bit that got me was 'Emma' the pony watching the Queen travel slowly past up the Long Walk.

 

[swt_passenger]

Planning, yes. Rehearsals, not so much. It would be pretty hard to rehearse something of that scale without it being very obvious.

Agree with no real rehearsals, but a lot of regular work to carry forward the planning and expertise. As I noted earlier the naval personnel involved with the gun carriage would have been got together only 10 days ago and taught their drills from a position of no prior knowledge at all.

 

[Geezertronic]

Planning, yes. Rehearsals, not so much. It would be pretty hard to rehearse something of that scale without it being very obvious.

I would suggest a lot of rehearsals were carried out over the years with particular attention to the practice required to play the planned funeral march music along with the marching to the slower-than-normal tempo and longevity of performance. I would also suggest that the Navy had to rehearse with the gun carriage (whether the actual one or not) to ensure they knew how to control it, and the bearer party had to rehearse to ensure they didn't have incidents particularly with the stairs

 

[swt_passenger]

I would suggest a lot of rehearsals were carried out over the years with particular attention to the practice required to play the planned funeral march music along with the marching to the slower-than-normal tempo and longevity of performance. I would also suggest that the Navy had to rehearse with the gun carriage (whether the actual one or not) to ensure they knew how to control it, and the bearer party had to rehearse to ensure they didn't have incidents particularly with the stairs

There were overnight rehearsals in London just this week, and initial training for the Navy was done near where I live at HMS Collingwood. But I‘m reasonably sure the gun carriage routines are not practiced before the need arises. They’d never know which personnel would be available at some future time.

 

[trebor79]

I’m impressed by the way there must have been an efficient means to re-learn the necessary skills to man the gun carriage, given it was last done in 1979 there must have been about 2 generations of personnel passed through the service since then.

I believe unlike the other services apart from the small nucleus of drill instructors there are no dedicated state ceremonial specialists, they’ll have been a scratch team of men and women brought together only 10 days ago.

I would suggest a lot of rehearsals were carried out over the years with particular attention to the practice required to play the planned funeral march music along with the marching to the slower-than-normal tempo and longevity of performance. I would also suggest that the Navy had to rehearse with the gun carriage (whether the actual one or not) to ensure they knew how to control it, and the bearer party had to rehearse to ensure they didn't have incidents particularly with the stairs

All the various elements will have been very well practised and rehearsed regularly. You can't put something like that together in 10 days with zero prior preparation.
Agree unlikely a full scale dress rehearsal, but the music, marching practices, gun carriage pulling etc will all have been periodically done.

I didn't bother watching the churchy bits because I have no interest at all in that side of things, but the procession was very well done and quite a spectacle.

 

[WesternLancer]

It was interesting how silent and clear of people central London was late last night. People must have been able to vacate the main areas quite smoothly. Pub(s) I was in closed 9pm and 9.30pm respectively.

I was on one of the additional late extra services being run to help get people home after midnight, it was almost empty of passengers.

 

[westv]

Like Elizabeth II, I guess this thread will now quietly drift into the pages of history.