The Queen was handed to the care of the nation for a period of lying in state after her family marched in homage behind her coffin as it was carried to Westminster Hall.
A gun carriage that had borne the coffins of her mother and father carried the late monarch to Westminster Hall – a procession of pomp and pageantry through the heart of the capital watched by tens of thousands who lined the route.
In bright summer sunshine, funeral marches played by military bands added to the solemn mood that left some mourners weeping, while others held up their camera phones to record the historic moment of the procession.
A few hours later the public were silently filing past their Queen, stopping to bow their heads and say “thank you” for her service.
Shortly after the arrival of the coffin at Westminster Hall, US President Joe Biden said he had spoken to the King on Wednesday to offer his condolences and shared the “great admiration of the American people” for the Queen.
Charles also spoke to France’s President Emmanuel Macron, president of Ireland Michael D Higgins and the governors general of Australia, Canada and Jamaica, who all expressedfi their sympathy.
Thousands of mourners flocked to see the moving sight of the Queen departing the official residence where she spent so much of her working life at the heart of the nation, with viewing areas declared full ahead of the procession starting.
The new monarch walked in line with the Princess Royal, the Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex.
The Queen’s coffin was transported on the George Gun Carriage, which carried King George VI’s coffin from Sandringham Church to Wolferton Station in February 1952 and was used during the funeral of the Queen Mother in 2002.
The crowds were treated to the spectacle of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment processing past along with soldiers from the Life Guards and Blues and Royals on foot.
Charles, in his Marshal of the Royal Air Force uniform, walked in step without showing any emotion. Anne and Edward, in military dress, and Andrew also did not betray their emotions.
At Horse Guards Parade, crowds of mourners, many in tears, applauded as the Queen’s coffin and procession entered the vast ceremonial parade ground, with the bells of Big Ben continuing to sound every minute.
The bearer party which carried the Queen’s coffin into Westminster Hall, and provided an escort, were soldiers flown back from Iraq to take part in the ceremony, because of their unique association with the monarch.
The Guardsmen were from the Queen’s Company, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, whose Company Commander was the Queen, and although a senior officer took day-to-day control, the former sovereign’s connection with her men was strong.
Entrusted with the Queen’s coffin the eight Guardsmen lifted it into place onto the catafalque – a raised platform – while Major Johnny Hathaway-White, Captain of the Queen’s Company helped to lay out the Queen’s Company Colours at its base.
The service was conducted with the congregation standing and lining the ancient hall was the wider royal family as the King with the Queen Consort stood at the head of their family, with the monarch’s siblings behind, and his sons and their partners William and Kate and Harry and Meghan.
Dozens of MPs and peers were congregated at one end of the hall with the Prime Minister and other party leaders, while at the other stood seven of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, all dressed in black.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said: “God, the maker and redeemer of all mankind: grant us, with thy servant Queen Elizabeth, and all the faithful departed, the sure benefits of thy Son’s saving passion and glorious resurrection; that in the last day, when all things are gathered up in Christ, we may with them enjoy the fullness of thy promises; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
The first vigil was mounted by four officers from the Household Division – two each from the Blues and Royals and Life Guards – and at some point the Queen’s children will take part in the ancient ceremony over the four days the Queen lies in state.
Just after 5pm members of the public who had waited for days to ensure their position at the front of the queue were allowed into the hall and filed past the Queen’s coffin.
Meanwhile, the King ended his day by returning to his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire for a day of reflection on Thursday and to work in private.
