Queen Elizabeth Death
The coffin with the royal crest and an entourage of her children, was carried by a military band following the death of queen Elizabeth ii at Westminster abbey on April 15, 1952. She died on november 4, 1952 in london at the age of 68. This is her second time in residence at St. Paul's cathedral, for her last major event was when she had her first-ever marriage to prince Philip. While there, she and the duke married in may 1953. In 1954, they divorced, and divorced again in 1963 after 16 years of union. She then re-married prince charles, earl spencer, lord elke, lady ann, baron de rothschild, lady alexandra (later baroness), countess of wessex, sir richard brougham and sir william arthur goring. Her daughters, princesses beatrice (born in 1959), eugenie (born 1961) and eugenie stella pankhurst were born in 1964, 1966, 1968 respectively. Both their sisters were born after her death as well!
The wedding reception was held the morning of march 25 in buckingham palace. It lasted for six days, which included several receptions outside of england. Her husband's birthday, 6 march, was also celebrated at kensington palace before a small number of guests from both sides of the english channel sailed down the river thames and into dover on the evening of march 26, 1952. The queen and king's eldest son, prince harry, had to leave their family home early that day so they could attend an engagement at windsor castle that same night. On her way out on the boat to meet up with him, she stopped off at dover and delivered a message to him at 11 o'clock at night. The next morning she and his uncle sir winston churchill met up at a hotel room just opposite to clarence house at no. 46 piccadilly. They were joined at the breakfast room by prince george and princess charlotte. Together they watched a film together. After some more visits to heathrow, they arrived back at downing street by 7 am. A lunch was then served at lunchtime at clarence house, followed by a private party at a hotel near the capital at 9:30 pm. The two couples attended the queen's funeral and dinner immediately afterwards at no. 22 london square.
At around midday, the couple was able to be seen on television at no. 23 st andrew square. It was made possible by the arrival of the royal guard band playing the traditional waltz and part of it was played by captain edward bellamy, who brought his own french horn which he used to play during war times. After spending what seemed like ages in the sunshine, they returned to clarence house at around 1:45 p.M., and watched another tv movie together. When they got home, they went straight into dinner. She wore a pretty floral dress, her hair hung straight but still had bangs to make it look stylish on her face. He wore a handsome dark blue suit with neat shoes, a white tie and a matching striped shirt. Their clothes matched their personalities and personalities. One thing that stuck with me was how much he kept himself very well dressed compared to the queen. She rarely wore socks as she found them too much attention. On another note, he wore his suit, white tie and shirt in spite of the cold weather.
Both families headed back to st. Paul's. To my knowledge, the queen's children stayed in clarence house as their parents didn't want them to go. There was no celebration because the royal boys wanted to spend time with their friends, so it was not a big affair. However, I did know that the princesses went to the opera, saw gone with the wind, made a surprise visit to canada, visited various museums in london without the royal families due to illness or other reasons. Then, in the afternoon, they were able to go to see dr strange, who was a friend of tony blair. They were joined by two police officers who were escorting them. They saw dr strange on his feet and they were very impressed, especially the officer on the left side standing behind me. That was very impressive. Just as the royals came to a church in the south tower of the whitehall, we watched captain cook show off his sea shanty from 'oops, me missed it!'. The whole atmosphere felt like there was a performance going on due to all the people wearing masks. The atmosphere left me feeling somewhat sad to think about it.
As it grew later into the late afternoon, the queen was taken away and it was very hard to tell if she was dead or alive. Everyone did feel bad for her. We were unable to let anyone see what they wanted to see. There was no sign of depression and everything seemed fine. All the dignitaries in the royal family took pictures with themselves. I was given an album by her majesty’s photographer of the past year showing photographs and paintings of the queen to mark the anniversary of her 60th birthday. I did enjoy looking through it and I thought that it would give you a bit more insight into how wonderful she really was.
The service ended at 12.30 pm. As soon as it got over the death, she was handed out at st. Paul's. She was escorted by prime minister clement attlee. During the ceremony, we were blessed to have our own king george v standing nearby, who gave us two minutes to perform the american national anthem. During that time, we played "The times of india" - one of her favorite songs, performed her theme tune "My heart will go wherever you laugh" by the ballets russesca orchestra, sang several hymns, including “if only god could still be with us" by ella fitzgerald, and “america first”.
The queen left me in tears. Her final words after receiving her flowers for her birthday were “my dear father and mother, we wish you a happy birthday and our love.” in this way, we shared a special moment together and one that no matter what happened, I will never forget. It is a special moment that I will always treasure and keep reminding myself of in times of trouble.
