Your entire United Kingdom held a second of silence for Queen Elizabeth II at 8 p.m. native time. This was as leaders from world wide arrived in London for her state funeral, which is ready to be held Monday.
President Biden and different dignitaries arrived in London for the funeral, to which round 500 royals, heads of state and heads of presidency from across the globe have been invited.
Mr. Biden and first girl Dr. Jill Biden paid their respects at Westminster Corridor on Sunday, the place they had been joined by Jane Hartley, U.S. ambassador to the UK. The president and first girl every then signed the official condolence e-book for the queen at Lancaster Home.
“She was the identical in individual as her picture — respectable, honorable, all about service,” Mr. Biden mentioned. “Our hearts exit to the royal household, King Charles and all of the household. It is a loss that leaves an enormous gap, and generally you assume you may by no means overcome it, however as I’ve advised the king, she’s going to be with him each step of the best way, each minute, each second. And that is a reassuring notion.”
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Hundreds of individuals continued to line up across the clock to file previous the queen’s coffin because it lies in state at Parliament’s Westminster Corridor, braving chilly in a single day temperatures and waits of as much as 17 hours. The queen’s eight grandchildren, led by inheritor to the throne Prince William, circled the coffin and stood with heads bowed throughout a silent vigil on Saturday night.
The miles-long queue at Westminster Corridor closed to new arrivals on Sunday at 10:30 p.m. native time so that everybody in line can file previous the coffin earlier than Monday morning, when will probably be borne on a gun carriage to Westminster Abbey for the queen’s funeral.
The queen’s third baby, Prince Andrew, paid tribute to her Sunday.
“As our e-book of experiences closes, one other opens, and I’ll eternally maintain you near my coronary heart with my deepest love and gratitude, and I’ll tread gladly into the following with you as my information,” he mentioned within the assertion.
Hundreds of cops from across the nation shall be on responsibility as a part of the largest one-day policing operation in London’s historical past.
Crowds additionally gathered Sunday close to Windsor Citadel, the place the queen shall be laid to relaxation at a personal household ceremony on Monday night.
“I feel it has been wonderful,” mentioned Anna Pettigrew, a 55-year-old instructor. “It has been very emotional, and I feel it has been a really becoming tribute to a beautiful queen.”
Camilla, the brand new queen consort, paid tribute to the queen in a video message, saying the monarch “carved her personal position” as a “solitary girl” on a world stage dominated by males.
“I’ll at all times keep in mind her smile. That smile is unforgettable,” mentioned Camilla, who’s married to King Charles III.
A tide of individuals continued to stream into Westminster Corridor, the place the queen’s coffin is mendacity in state, draped within the Royal Normal and capped with a diamond-studded crown. The variety of mourners has grown steadily for the reason that public was first admitted on Wednesday, with a queue that stretches for not less than 5 miles alongside the River Thames and into Southwark Park within the metropolis’s southeast.
Honoring their persistence, Charles and William made an unannounced go to Saturday to greet individuals within the line, shaking arms and thanking mourners within the queue close to Lambeth Bridge.
Later, all of the queen’s grandchildren stood by her coffin. William and Prince Harry, Charles’ sons, had been joined by Princess Anne’s kids, Zara Tindall and Peter Philips; Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie; and the 2 kids of Prince Edward — Girl Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn.
William stood along with his head bowed on the head of the coffin and Harry on the foot. Each princes, who’re army veterans, had been in uniform. Mourners continued to file previous in silence.
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“You could possibly see that they had been considering arduous about their grandmother, the queen,” mentioned Ian Mockett, a civil engineer from Oxford in southern England. “It was good to see all of them collectively as a set of grandchildren given the issues which have occurred over the previous couple of years.”
Harry, who served in Afghanistan as a British military officer, wore civilian garments earlier within the week because the queen’s coffin left Buckingham Palace as a result of he’s now not a working member of the royal household. He and his spouse Meghan stop royal duties and moved to america in 2020. The king, nonetheless, requested that each William and Harry put on their army uniforms on the Westminster Corridor vigil.
Earlier than the vigil, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie issued an announcement praising their “beloved grannie.”
“We, like many, thought you would be right here eternally. And all of us miss you terribly. You had been our matriarch, our information, our loving hand on our backs main us via this world. You taught us a lot and we are going to cherish these classes and recollections eternally,” the sisters wrote.
The queen’s 4 kids — Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward — held the same vigil across the coffin on Friday.
The silence within the corridor was briefly damaged Friday when a person lunged on the coffin. London police mentioned Sunday {that a} 28-year-old London man, Muhammad Khan, has been charged with conduct supposed to “trigger alarm, harassment or misery.” He’ll seem in courtroom on Monday.
The lying-in-state continues till early Monday morning, when the queen’s coffin shall be moved to close by Westminster Abbey for the funeral, the finale of 10 days of nationwide mourning for Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
After the service Monday on the abbey, the late queen’s coffin shall be transported via the historic coronary heart of London on a gun carriage. It’ll then be taken in a hearse to Windsor, the place the queen shall be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died final yr.
