Queen leads family in prayer

9.30am

LONDON - Queen Elizabeth has made her first public appearance since the death of her mother, leading the family in prayer and remembrance at the coffin of the 101-year-old royal matriarch.

Dressed in a black suit, the 75-year-old Queen led royal mourners into the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park where earlier the Queen Mother's coffin had been placed.

Earlier, under a grey sky, Britons caught their first glimpse of the royal matriarch's coffin. Draped in her personal standard and topped with a wreath of pink and white flowers, it was carried through a corridor of golden daffodils to the chapel.

Queen Elizabeth, who was at her mother's bedside when she died peacefully in her sleep yesterday, was joined by her four children and other senior royals at the short evensong service she had requested in memory of her mother.

Heir to the throne Prince Charles, who is said to be "absolutely devastated" by his grandmother's death, and his sons cut short their skiing holiday in the Swiss resort of Klosters to fly home.

The BBC said the three would return to their Highgrove home after the service, affording Charles some time to mourn the Queen Mother. The two were particularly close.

The Queen will stay at Windsor with other members of the royal family until her mother's funeral on April 9, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said.

The coffin will stay in the small Windsor chapel until Tuesday when it will be taken to the Queen's Chapel at St James' Palace in central London.

On Friday it will be taken to Westminster Hall, part of the Houses of Parliament, where it will lie in state until the day of the funeral.

- REUTERS

Feature: The Queen Mother 1900-2002