Buckingham Palace announces arrangements for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19, after members of the public are given an opportunity to pay their respects as she lies in state in Edinburgh and London, the royal family announced Saturday. 

Buckingham Palace said in a statement that the queen’s coffin is at her summer residence, Balmoral Castle, in Scotland, where she died on Thursday at the age of 96. The coffin will travel to Edinburgh on Sunday to lie in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the British monarch’s official residence in Scotland. 

A procession will form on the forecourt of the palace on Monday to escort the coffin to St. Giles’ Cathedral. King Charles III and the royal family will take part in the procession and then attend a service to receive the coffin. 

The queen’s coffin will lie in the cathedral until Tuesday, allowing the people of Scotland to come and pay their respects to her. 

A Royal Air Force aircraft will fly the coffin from Edinburgh Airport to RAF Northolt, a Royal Air Force station in west London, on Tuesday afternoon. The coffin will then be taken to Buckingham Palace. 

A procession will take it from the palace to the Palace of Westminster, where the houses of Parliament meet, on Wednesday. The archbishop of Canterbury will conduct a short service as the coffin reaches Westminster, which the king and members of the royal family will also attend. 

The queen will lie in state there, allowing the public the visit, for four days until the state funeral. The coffin will be taken from the Palace of Westminster to Westminster Abbey on the morning of the funeral. 

After the funeral concludes, the coffin will travel in a procession from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch to Windsor Castle. It will then travel to St. George’s Chapel within the castle for a committal service. 

The plan for the steps to take following the queen’s death, known as Operation London Bridge, has been in place for decades. Buckingham Palace is putting into effect an alternative known as Operation Unicorn, the contingency plan for London Bridge in the event that the queen died in Scotland instead of England. 

President Biden has confirmed that he plans to attend the queen’s funeral.