Britain, world bid farewell to Queen Elizabeth 2nd

(UPDATE)LONDON: Britain said farewell to Queen Elizabeth 2nd on Monday at a state funeral attended by world leaders, before a historic last ceremonial journey through the streets of London packed with sorrowful mourners.

Huge crowds gathered in near silence to watch as the queen's flag-draped coffin, topped with the Imperial State Crown, her orb and scepter, was carried slowly to a gun carriage from parliament's Westminster Hall where it had lain in state since Wednesday.

End of an era Britain’s King Charles 3rd (left) and Princess Anne walk behind the coffin of Queen Elizabeth 2nd as they leave Westminster Abbey in London on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. AFP photo

To the tune of pipes and drums, the gun carriage — used at every state funeral since Queen Victoria's in 1901 — was then drawn by 142 junior enlisted sailors in the Royal Navy to Westminster Abbey.

The thousand-year-old church's tenor bell tolled 96 times at one-minute intervals — one for every year of her life — stopping a minute before the service began at 11 a.m. (1000 GMT).

In his funeral sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby praised the queen's life of duty and service to the UK and Commonwealth.

“People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer,” he told the 2,000 guests, who included US President Joe Biden and Japan's reclusive Emperor Naruhito.

“But in all cases, those who serve will be loved and remembered,” the Anglican leader added, before the coffin was borne on another procession toward her final resting place in Windsor Castle, west of London.

The longest-serving monarch in British history died at Balmoral, her Scottish Highland retreat, on September 8 after a year of declining health.

Her eldest son and successor, King Charles 3rd, dressed in ceremonial military uniform, followed the solemn processions, alongside his three siblings.

Charles's eldest son Prince William accompanied them alongside William's estranged brother, Prince Harry, and other senior royals.

William's two eldest children, George and Charlotte, who are next in line to the throne, also walked behind the coffin inside the abbey.

The funeral lasted just under an hour, brought to an end by a bugler playing “The Last Post,” before two minutes of silence and the reworded national anthem, “God Save the King.”

The queen will be buried alongside her father king George 6th, her mother Queen Elizabeth and sister Princess Margaret, reuniting in death the family who once called themselves “us four.”

The coffin of her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99, will also be transferred to lie alongside her.