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Epic queue for Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin had a quarter-million people
Initial estimates suggest that more than 250,000 people “went through Parliament” to see the queen’s coffin, British Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan told U.K. broadcasters early Tuesday. While some who entered Westminster Hall were able to bypass the queue — including lawmakers and their guests, accredited journalists and foreign dignitaries invited to the queen’s funeral — most would have had to queue, in many cases overnight.
If confirmed, the figure would be significantly lower than estimates floated by some officials earlier. Reuters reported Thursday that about 750,000 people were expected to file past the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall.
Kylie Galloway, a spokeswoman for Guinness World Records, said in an email that the organization had made contact with the British government to corroborate numbers. “We cannot confirm any record just yet, but we are looking into it,” she said. In a previous post, Guinness said that the line could “well be part of a record-breaking event.”
In an article on the organization’s website, however, it described previous funeral queues that appeared to have been quite a bit longer, including for Elizabeth’s father, George VI, who reportedly had more than 300,000 people view his coffin in 1952, while millions turned out to see the funeral of Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
Estimating crowd sizes — whether at protests, political rallies or in queues — is a difficult and often contentious exercise that can have political implications if officials want to play down or exaggerate turnout.
The 10-day national mourning period for the queen, which ended Monday in an elaborate state funeral at Westminster Abbey, was a royal blockbuster show that was planned for decades and choreographed down to the minute. But the queue was a messy, funny and uniquely human moment amid all the rehearsed pageantry. It quickly took on a life of its own, with some queue masters doing it twice, others live-tweeting their experiences, and one parent even said (hopefully jokingly) that the experience topped having children.
Soccer star David Beckham was in the queue for 13 hours and told “Good Morning America” how he survived the ordeal with Pringles, lemon candy, coffee, sandwiches and doughnuts. King Charles III and Prince William stopped by unexpectedly on Sunday to greet well-wishers.
Some mourners endured serious hardships. The London Ambulance Service said it treated 2,012 patients in the queue, with 240 taken to hospitals — as temperatures plunged on many nights and people huddled under blankets and tents.
The last group of mourners who emerged from their viewing around 6.30 a.m. on Monday had queued, and queued, and queued overnight.
The Washington Post spoke to the first and last people in the queue. Vanessa Nanthakumaran, an administrative assistant and the very first in line, arrived on the morning of Sept. 12 and queued for over 50 hours. Like many, she said she was there “to be part of history.”
For Christina Heerey, the final person in the queue, it was so important to see the queen lying in state that she did it twice.
During the four days that began Wednesday at 5 p.m. and ended Monday at 6:30 a.m., the queue became an object of fascination at home and abroad, with a dedicated government tracker and parody social media accounts.
Some nicknamed the queue “the Elizabeth line,” which is also the name of a new subway line. The queue for the queue was dubbed QEII.
For many, it was a surprisingly joyful affair, with people of all ages and nationalities lining up, many of whom had a connection with the queen.
Pluck a random person from the crowd, as Australian Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Barbara Miller did — live on air — and you may have found yourself talking to the queen’s former representative in Parliament, known as the “Black Rod,” David Leakey, who spent years helping to plan her funeral. (Miller humorously owned her ignorance before turning the conversation into a fascinating chat about Leakey’s relationship with the queen and his thoughts on the new king’s frustration with a leaky pen.)
A priceless moment when @abcnews talks to a random member of the public in the queue to pay respects to Her Majesty & the person turns out to be the former Black Rod!
When asked to explain the role he says “Well you have a Black Rod in Australia” 🤣pic.twitter.com/PHhyqddlKQ
— Aaron Rankin (@Aaron_R_Rankin) September 15, 2022
David Hatchett, 44, from east London, was among the last to see the queen’s coffin. He said copious amounts of tea helped him get through his nine-hour ordeal. Small talk with new friends also helped — albeit in a very British kind of way.
He said there was a lot of “politely talking to people you don’t really know. … We exchanged anecdotes, understood people’s motives for wanting to be there. There was a camaraderie about it. It’s not like we shared our whole life stories, though.”
He said seeing the “queen’s coffin, the crown jewels on top, … was a touching moment. Being one or two meters away from the queen, it’s a strange concept to comes to terms with.”