By JILL LAWLESS and MIKE CORDER
LONDON (AP) — The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II returned to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday night, making its means via a drizzly London as crowds lined the route for a glimpse of the hearse and to bid her a last farewell.
People parked their vehicles alongside a usually busy highway, received out and waved because the hearse, with lights inside illuminating the flag-draped coffin, made its means into London. In the town, individuals pressed in on the highway and held their telephones aloft because it handed.
Thousands outdoors the palace cheered, shouted “God save the queen!” and clapped because the hearse swung round a roundabout in entrance of the queen’s official London residence and thru the wrought iron gates. Her son, King Charles III, and different instant relations waited inside.
The coffin traveled to London from Edinburgh, the place 33,000 individuals filed silently previous it within the 24 hours at St. Giles’ Cathedral after it had been introduced there from her cherished summer time retreat, Balmoral. The queen — the one monarch many within the United Kingdom have ever recognized — died there Sept. 8 at age 96 after 70 years on the throne.
The army C-17 Globemaster carrying the casket touched down at RAF Northolt, an air pressure base within the west of London, about an hour after it left Edinburgh. U.Okay. Prime Minister Liz Truss, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace and a army honor guard have been amongst these on the base for the arrival.
One who stood within the rain ready for the hearse to go, retired bus driver David Stringer, 82, recalled watching the queen’s coronation on a newsreel as a boy.
“It’s a great shame,” he mentioned. “I mean, I didn’t think about her every day, but I always knew she was there, and my life’s coming to a close now and her time has finished.”
The coffin shall be taken by horse-drawn gun carriage Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state for 4 days earlier than Monday’s funeral at Westminster Abbey.
“Scotland has now bid our Queen of Scots a sad, but fond farewell,” mentioned Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. “We will not see her like again.”
Charles had returned to London from Northern Ireland, the place his go to drew a uncommon second of unity from politicians in a area with a contested British and Irish identification that’s deeply divided over the monarchy.
The new king is making his personal journey this week, visiting the 4 nations of the U.Okay. – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Hundreds gathered round Hillsborough Castle close to Belfast, the royal household’s official residence in Northern Ireland, within the newest outpouring of affection following the queen’s demise. The space in entrance of the gates to the fortress was carpeted with tons of of floral tributes.
Charles and his spouse Camilla, the Queen Consort, received out of their automotive to wave to the group and typically used each arms to succeed in out to villagers, together with schoolchildren in shiny blue uniforms. Charles even petted a corgi — famously his late mom’s favourite breed of canine — held up by one particular person, and a few chanted “God save the king!”
“Today means so much to me and my family, just to be present in my home village with my children to witness the arrival of the new king is a truly historic moment for us all,” mentioned Hillsborough resident Robin Campbell.
While there was a heat welcome in Hillsborough, the British monarchy attracts blended feelings in Northern Ireland, the place there are two principal communities: principally Protestant unionists who contemplate themselves British and largely Roman Catholic nationalists who see themselves as Irish.
That cut up fueled three a long time of violence referred to as “the Troubles” involving paramilitary teams on either side and U.Okay. safety forces, through which 3,600 individuals died. The royal household was touched personally by the violence: Lord Louis Mountbatten, a cousin of the queen and a much-loved mentor to Charles, was killed by an Irish Republican Army bomb in 1979.
A deep sectarian divide stays, 1 / 4 century after Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace settlement.
For some Irish nationalists, the monarch represents an oppressive overseas energy. But others acknowledge the queen’s function in forging peace. On a go to to Northern Ireland in 2012, she shook arms with Sinn Fein deputy chief Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander — a once-unthinkable second of reconciliation. On Tuesday the brand new king shook arms with Sinn Fein Vice President Michelle O’Neill.
In an indication of how far Northern Ireland has come on the highway to peace, representatives of Sinn Fein attended commemorative occasions for the queen and assembly the king on Tuesday.
Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein politician who’s speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, mentioned the queen had “demonstrated how individual acts of positive leadership can help break down barriers and encourage reconciliation.”
Charles responded that she had tried to play a task “in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts.”
He mentioned he would draw on his mom’s “shining example” and “seek the welfare of all the inhabitants of Northern Ireland.”
Still, not everybody was welcoming the brand new king.
On the Falls Road in Belfast, a nationalist stronghold, a number of partitions are embellished with murals of Bobby Sands, an IRA member who died whereas on a starvation strike in jail in 1981, and others killed within the Troubles.
“No, he’s not our king. Bobby Sands was our king here,” mentioned 52-year-old Bobby Jones. “Queen never done nothing for us. Never did. None of the royals do.”
Irish leaders attended a service of reflection at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast regardless of tense relations between Dublin and London over Brexit. Since Britain left the European Union in 2020, the U.Okay. and the EU have been wrangling over commerce guidelines for Northern Ireland, the one a part of the U.Okay. that shares a border with a member of the bloc.
Before being flown to London, the queen’s oak coffin was carried from St. Giles’ Cathedral to the pressure of bagpipes. Crowds lining the Royal Mile via the historic coronary heart of Edinburgh broke into applause because the coffin, accompanied by the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, was pushed to Edinburgh Airport.
“I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest mother’s life,” Princess Anne mentioned in an announcement. “It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.”
___
Follow AP tales on the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s royal household at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
Source: www.bostonherald.com”