Yahoo News Queen Elizabeth's Personal Staff Line Up to Watch Monarch Pass Buckingham Palace for the Last Time
Queen Elizabeth II's staff are saying goodbye to the late monarch.
During the coffin procession to Hyde Park at the Queen's funeral, over 100 Buckingham Palace employees lined up outside the royal residence as the monarch passed by for the very last time.
Buckingham Palace was the Queen's main residence since her crowning in 1953. However, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she temporarily moved to Windsor Castle and did not return to the Palace before her death.
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On Sept. 8, Buckingham Palace announced that the monarch "peacefully" died at age 96 at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Following the announcement, a close source told PEOPLE that her loyal personal staff "are devastated" by the news.
"They are incandescent with grief," the insider said. "However much you are prepared for it, after a lifetime of service, it was still a terrible shock."
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More than 2,000 people, including world leaders and foreign royals, gathered at Westminster Abbey on Monday for the monarch's funeral.
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The funeral service was led by David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster, with readings from Prime Minister Liz Truss and Patricia Scotland, Secretary General of the Commonwealth. Prayers were recited by the Archbishop of York, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and the Free Churches Moderator.
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Queen Elizabeth's funeral service concluded at about noon local time. Then her coffin moved from Westminster Abbey to the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy, for transport to the Wellington Arch in Hyde Park. Her family followed behind for the 1 ½-mile journey, escorted by detachments of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth.
During the somber march, the King's Troop fired guns in Hyde Park and Big Ben tolled.
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At Wellington Arch (the original entrance to Buckingham Palace), the coffin moved into the State Hearse to drive an hour west to Windsor Castle, where the Queen will be buried at St. George's Chapel.
When the hearse took off, bound for Her Majesty's final resting place, the parade gave a royal salute, and "God Save the King" played.
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King Charles and his family will then depart in cars for Windsor, where the Queen will be privately interred at St. George's Chapel this evening.
She will be buried beside Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, and near her sister, Princess Margaret, and her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
