As the nation mourns the Queen and the world’s media prepares for the biggest broadcast in history, we look back at another royal funeral that brought the country together.
On the morning of Sunday, August 31, 1997, Britons woke to news that would shock the entire world. Diana, Princess of Wales, had died in a car accident in the early hours.
Prince Charles and the young princes, William and Harry, were on holiday with other royal family members at Balmoral. The future king decided to let them sleep before breaking the news.
So began an international outpouring of grief. Diana was an immensely popular royal, as at ease mixing among world leaders and celebrities as the general population.
Capitalising on her platform, she campaigned tirelessly for myriad progressive causes, famously donning a flak jacket and picking her way through an Angolan mine field shortly before her death.
However, having divorced Prince Charles a year earlier, there was no specific protocol for her funeral. The Princess’s private secretary Patrick Jepson said: ‘There was no rule book to go on, no precedent, no tradition. Nothing fitted the royal game plan.’
But come the morning of Saturday, September 6, more than 2million mourners lined the streets of London as the funeral procession made its way from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. Almost 2.6billion more watched on television.
Twenty-five years on, people remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on that day – not least those who were right in the middle of proceedings…
‘I stopped in my tracks when I saw the boys – and teared up’
Royal photographer Ken Lennox watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales from the newsroom as he marshalled a team of 30 photographers along the route of the cortège to Westminster Abbey. Emotions were running high.
‘What I found hardest to watch was the boys, William and Harry, walking alongside the coffin – that was really emotional. I stopped in my tracks when I saw that and teared up – everyone in the newsroom did,’ says Lennox.
‘They walked for 45 minutes. All they could hear was people weeping along the road and not a word was said as flowers were thrown on to the car – it was overwhelming.
‘I was looking for the minutiae which summed up the emotion of the day. With Diana’s funeral, I spotted Prince Harry’s card on top of the coffin, which simply said ‘Mummy’. When I saw that, I phoned all the photographers along the route so they could try to get a picture of it.’
At the end of the day, the then picture editor at The Sun took a taxi home and asked the driver if he could go by way of Kensington Palace to see the flowers that had been laid in Diana’s memory.
‘We got as far as Marble Arch, which was a mile away from the palace, and I could already smell the flowers,’ he says. ‘I said to the driver, “Just take me home”. I was exhausted and knew I couldn’t face seeing that.
‘I’d had a long working relationship with Diana – I was one of the first photographers she ever spoke to after she met Prince Charles and I photographed her countless times over the years, so of course it was emotional.’
Lennox was also at Westminster Abbey to cover the 2002 funeral of the Queen Mother.
‘I was at the back of Westminster Abbey with a long lens and I could see that her daughter, the Queen, was in tears. The tears were streaming down her face. That brought a lump to my throat.
‘Nothing comes close to the protocol and the ceremony of a royal funeral.’
How the funeral of Diana unfurled
More than 1million mourners arrive in London by train – others have camped out overnight. Some have risen at 3am to catch milk trains. More than 2million people line the streets of the capital.
The pallbearers arrive at Kensington Palace to collect the coffin. The emotion hits one young guardsman, who starts to weep. He is comforted by Drill Sergeant Paul Cunliffe, who said: ‘I patted him on the back and told him to treat the occasion like a job, not Diana’s funeral – it was the only way to get through it.’
Diana’s coffin, placed on a horse-drawn gun carriage and covered by a Union flag, leaves Kensington Palace. On top lie three wreaths of white flowers from her young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, and brother, Earl Spencer. The crowd gasp as they see Harry’s handwritten card that says ‘Mummy’ on the coffin.
As the coffin passes the west side of Buckingham Palace, the Queen and other members of the royal family stand outside, bowing in respect.
Two thousand guests begin to gather at Westminster Abbey. They include George Michael, Tom Cruise and Nelson Mandela.
The procession reaches St James’s Palace, where Diana’s body had lain in rest for five days. Standing in silence are William and Harry, their faces etched with pain.
The Queen leaves Buckingham Palace. Sombre staff replace the Royal Standard fluttering overhead with a Union flag flying at half-mast. It is the first time this has happened.
The pallbearers take position for the duty they have rehearsed to perfection for 13 hours a day over the previous four days. They had been practising with a lighter, dummy coffin – and the weight of Diana’s 50-stone, lead-lined coffin takes them by surprise.
Elton John fights back tears as he performs Goodbye England’s Rose, a rewritten version of his hit Candle In The Wind, in the abbey. 11:35am Earl Spencer stands to deliver a stinging eulogy he has written himself. There’s a silence as he finishes but then the crowd outside start to applaud.
At the end of the service, Diana’s coffin is carried to the west end of Westminster Abbey. It halts, and a silence is observed by the nation before the half-muffled bells of the abbey ring out and the coffin is carried outside.
The Queen departs. Diana’s family watch in silence as the coffin is gently placed into the rear of a black Daimler hearse owned by north London funeral director Leverton & Sons, appointed royal undertaker in 1991.
The vehicle proceeds slowly towards Marble Arch and is met by 12 officers from the Special Escort Group, dressed in black uniforms and standing beside BMW R110 motorcycles, which were newly released for the funeral.
The funeral cortege makes its way slowly up the M1 for the 70-mile journey to Althorp House in Northampton. There, Charles, William, Harry and Diana’s family gather on a small island in the middle of an ornamental lake on the estate, watching as Diana’s coffin is lowered into the ground.
‘A shaft of light lit up the coffin like a spotlight – it was eerie’
Royal author Charles Rae found a quiet alleyway after leaving the funeral of Princess Diana and wept.
‘You are at the funeral to do a job,’ he says. ‘You’ve got to be professional and transfer what you’ve just seen into print for your readers but you’d have to have a heart of stone for it not to affect you.
‘After we all filed out, I felt very strange. I’ve always regarded myself as a rufty-tufty Scot – nothing bothers me – but as I walked back to my hotel, I turned into a little alleyway with no one in it and I just stood there and cried.
‘I’d been through a horrendous week working long hours. The emotion had been building up to the funeral service and at the end I was gone.
‘But I felt the same way as a great many people in the crowds outside. They may not have met her but here was a staggering river of tears for her.
‘When I got home, I was drained and a few days later I took myself off and went on my own to a hotel in Norfolk. I just wanted to be on my own to recharge and reflect.’
For Rae – former royal correspondent for The Sun, two key moments stand out. ‘Along with other royal reporters I was invited to the funeral and my seat was practically behind Mohamed Al-Fayed, facing the royal family,’ he says.
‘It was a very emotional day. I knew Diana reasonably well. Whenever we had an opportunity to talk, we talked. We laughed, we giggled – once there was a bit of an argument – but most of the time it was a great relationship and I enjoyed being with her.
‘When Elton John sang his new version of Candle In The Wind, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
‘I also remember her coffin was under a dome in the abbey and the sun suddenly shone just on it. It was a huge shaft of light, like a spotlight, and the only thing that was lit up was the coffin. It was quite eerie.
‘I thought, “God almighty, where did that come from?” It was similar to the rainbows that people saw outside Buckingham Palace after the Queen died.’
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