[imagesource: Jacob King /Pool via AP]

Queen Elizabeth II will be laid to rest in a state funeral today.

For the past five days, her coffin has been lying in state at Westminster Hall, with tens of thousands of mourners embracing their Britishness and queuing for hours and hours to pay their respects.

As of 7:30AM today, the lying-in-state ended and Westminster Hall has now been closed to the public.

At 11:44AM our time (10:44AM in the UK), the Queen’s coffin will be loaded onto the gun carriage for the short procession to Westminster Abbey.

The coffin, followed on foot by King Charles III and senior members of the Royal family, will arrive at Westminster Abbey at 10:52AM.

At midday our time, or 11AM UK time, the funeral officially begins. It’s expected to last around an hour, with the Last Post played and a national two-minute silence observed around the country ending that part of the proceedings.

More of the timeline using UK time (we are one hour ahead) via The Telegraph:

Around midday: the coffin will then be placed back on the gun carriage and taken to Wellington Arch in a procession, led by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, together with NHS workers, officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the British Armed Forces.

Image: The Telegraph

3.06pm: the coffin arrives at Windsor at the Shaw Farm Gate, with the hearse driving slowly up the Long Walk where the public are expected to line the route.

4pm: televised committal ceremony in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, at the end of which the Lord Chamberlain will break his stick of office over the coffin and it will be lowered into the royal vault, out of view.

In a private ceremony at around 8:30PM our time, Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will be reunited with Prince Philip’s coffin in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.

Anything else you need to know will no doubt be discussed in great detail throughout the rolling live coverage of the funeral.

There will be countless TV channels showing the funeral. In case you get struck by load shedding and want to watch online, here are two options.

There’s the Royal Family Channel:

There’s also the BBC coverage:

For those who think the grinding to a halt of regular British life in order to honour Queen Elizabeth II has been a bit much, I highly recommend keeping an eye on GrieveWatch on Twitter.

Apparently moving between floors of a car park is disrespectful. @GrieveWatch pic.twitter.com/WCI6YEYLd7

— James Hopkins (@JimToThe2) September 18, 2022

[source:tele]