Bell tolls 101 for best-loved royal

By BRONWYN SELL in London

The tenor bell of Westminster Abbey rang out over central London 101 times last night, beginning a solemn final farewell to the Queen Mother.

As the 2100-strong congregation, including New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, took their places in the abbey, half a million people gathered outside to watch a great display of regal pageantry.

The crowds fell silent at the first tolling of the 13th century abbey's bell, which rang 79 years ago for the Queen Mother's wedding and again 50 years ago at the funeral of her husband, George VI.

The most hardy and the most curious had camped overnight outside the abbey - some for two nights - to get the best vantage point. They came to mark their place in history. They came out of curiosity. And they came for the reason anyone goes to the funeral of someone whose death has long been expected - to support the family.

The Queen lost her sister two months ago and her mother on Easter Sunday, at the age of 101.

Despite her wealth and privilege, she is a woman who, like so many before her, held her mother's hand as she died.

The Queen Mother's coffin, draped in her personal flag and topped with her crown, was carried to the abbey on a gun carriage pulled by six black horses of the Royal Horse Artillery, and escorted by 192 bagpipers and drummers of royal regiments.

The same carriage carried the coffin of her husband, King George VI, at his funeral in 1952.

The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and other senior members of the royal family, many of them in uniform, walked behind the coffin.

Camilla Parker Bowles, Prince Charles' long-time companion, attended the funeral, prompting Daily Mail royal correspondent Richard Kay to remark: "It is a watershed ... Marriage, surely, cannot be far away."

On the eve of the funeral, the Queen broadcast from Windsor Castle. She told the nation she was deeply moved by the outpouring of affection.

"My family and I always knew what she meant for the people of this country and the special place she occupied in the hearts of so many here, in the Commonwealth and in other parts of the world.

"But the extent of the tribute that huge numbers of you have paid my mother in the last few days has been overwhelming." The speech, like other elements of the mourning - including Princess Anne's participation in Friday's march - was a relaxing of tradition.

The royal family seems to have captured Britain's mood; an opinion poll for the Independent newspaper yesterday found dwindling support for the abolition of the monarchy.

A year ago, 39 per cent of British people felt they would be better off without the royals. The new poll found 12 per cent favoured abolition.

The funeral service, which was piped through loudspeakers around Westminster, the Mall and Parliament Square, was guided by tradition but influenced by sentiment. People leaned against the barricades and stared into space as the deep, melodious voices of the prayers and readings echoed around the majestic stone buildings of Whitehall.

Some, shivering in business suits and looking as if they had popped over from Whitehall, enviously eyed others' survival kits of sleeping bags, crochet rugs, blankets, thermos flasks and stools.

On the south side of Parliament Square, Andrea Wilson, 24, and Tony Poole, 25, from Oamaru, arrived early for a decent spot.

"It's just about history," said Andrea Wilson.

"It's probably the only time we'll get to see something like this."

Alongside austere hymns and prayers in the service were some of the Queen Mother's favourite poems.

The service opened with words by an unknown poet: "You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, led tributes to the "deeply loved and greatly missed" Queen Mother, saying she had the great gifts of strength, dignity and laughter.

After the Last Post rang through the abbey, followed by the National Anthem, the cortege left the church as the Abbey Church bell was rung half-muffled in a mournful peal.

Prince Charles left with the coffin bearing his magical grandmother for a last trip through the city she had loved.

The cortege moved from Westminster to Whitehall. As it passed a statue of her husband, a Spitfire, a Hurricane and a Lancaster roared overhead.

It passed Clarence House, the Queen Mother's home for 50 years, and then Buckingham Palace, scene of some of her greatest triumphs, notably VE Day in 1945, when she stood on the balcony with her husband and daughters and Sir Winston Churchill.

As it drove through the suburbs of London, bystanders tossed flowers in its path. After a private committal, the Queen Mother was laid beside her husband, with her daughter Margaret's ashes nearby.

Despite her riches, the final gift she delivered to her daughter, the Queen, was priceless - the love of the nation in her jubilee year.

Feature: The Queen Mother 1900-2002

Funeral pictures