They were the seven days that shocked the world, from the death of Princess Diana in Paris to her funeral at Westminster Abbey. In this, the final part of our poignant series to mark the 20th anniversary, JONATHAN MAYO reconstructs those momentous events as they happened through the eyes of Royal Family members, politicians, the Princess’s family and a grief-stricken public…
1am, Saturday, September 6
Diana’s coffin is resting on a trestle in Kensington Palace, surrounded by flowers and candles. Her butler Paul Burrell sits with his left hand resting on the coffin, his right hand holding a book of prayers. In a corridor outside, the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, sits and prays. Diana has been dressed in a black Catherine Walker coat-dress that she bought in July and never wore when she was alive.
Outside the palace and all along the funeral route, thousands of people are sleeping on pavements. Half-way down the Mall are David and Diana Thompson and their two young children. They set off from Canterbury early yesterday evening to secure their place. Sixteen years earlier David and Diana were in the exact same spot for Charles and Diana’s wedding.
Prince Philip, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry, Prince Charles at Diana’s funeral
4am
BBC Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond arrives in front of Buckingham Palace where temporary television studios have been erected. Some people on the pavements are huddled around candles, others are praying, and a group standing by the Victoria Memorial is singing ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’. St John Ambulance volunteers are handing out hot drinks and foil blankets. Jennie joins her colleague Jill Dando, who will present the BBC’s early morning coverage of the funeral.
The lead pair of horses that will pull the gun carriage carrying Diana’s coffin are being ridden through the darkened streets past the army of mourners. The intention is to get them used to the crowds they’ll be confronted by later in the day.
6am
At Althorp, the Spencer family estate, hundreds of flowers have been tucked into the iron gates. A single, tall sunflower leans against the wall with a note that says: ‘Your sun will never set.’ About a dozen people have slept here overnight under quilts and in sleeping bags; one man has driven all the way from Devon. This afternoon, Diana will be buried on an island on the estate.
7am
In Calcutta, hundreds of people have queued outside the motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity in the monsoon rain to pay their respects to Mother Teresa, who died yesterday.
Earl Spencer, Prince William and The Prince of Wales, wait as the hearse carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales prepares to leave Westminster Abbey following her funeral service
7.30am
In Hyde Park, where two huge screens have been erected, there are already hundreds of people sitting in the early morning sun.
Ruth Rudge, Diana’s old headmistress, and her friend Kay King, who employed Diana as a kindergarten teacher, have stopped off at Kensington Palace on their way to Westminster Abbey. They are looking at the mass of flowers. Ruth says: ‘Can you believe that shy teenager has been responsible for this incredible outpouring of emotion?’
Inside the palace, Paul Burrell ends his vigil by Diana’s coffin. He places his hand on the Royal Standard draped over the coffin and says: ‘It’s time for me to say goodbye to you now.’
Photographer Jayne Fincher, who has taken pictures of Diana for 17 years, including portraits for family Christmas cards, arrives at Westminster Abbey. Jayne takes her place with other photographers on a raised platform opposite the Great West Door. Some of the crowd below start to heckle them.
8.30am
London is now bathed in bright sunshine. The pavements around Trafalgar Square are so crowded, the police are telling the people who are part of the Abbey congregation to walk down the middle of the street. The only sound is the noise of their shoes on the road and the sobbing of the crowd.
Members of the Samaritans are positioned along the funeral route to help mourners if necessary, and officials from the Port of London are on suicide watch along the River Thames.
The BBC coverage of the funeral begins, presented by David Dimbleby from a studio set up opposite the Abbey’s Great West Door. The BBC is covering the funeral with 141 cameras and its pictures are being broadcast to more than 400 countries around the world.
8.45am
Paul Burrell bows his head as Diana’s coffin is carried from Kensington Palace on the shoulders of eight Welsh Guards who were flown in from Northern Ireland earlier this week.
The staff are lined up outside the palace. Many are weeping. Guardsman Philip Bartlett, one of the soldiers, is finding it hard not to cry, too, and he is shocked by the weight of the lead-lined coffin.
Philip is positioned at the widest part of the coffin and can’t reach far enough to grip his partner’s shoulder, so he has to grab the middle of his back. The Guardsmen carefully place the coffin on a gun carriage that saw action during World War I and will be pulled by six black horses.
9am
Many shops and banks around the country have closed. There’s no post. Nurses in Walsall Hospital have brought TVs into the wards, even though they aren’t supposed to. Today there will be 21 weddings at Gretna Green. Each will be preceded by a prayer for Diana.
Yachts on the French Riviera, where Diana spent her last holiday with Dodi, have their flags flying at half-mast.
9.08am
The funeral cortege will be guarded along the route to Westminster Abbey by a detail of mounted police. In charge is mounted officer Steve Marsh. In his earpiece he hears the order, ‘Right, let’s go!’
The gun carriage emerges from the shadow of Kensington Palace. Marching on either side of the coffin are the Welsh Guards.
The cortege proceeds down the private drive towards the street where the crowds are waiting.
As the gun carriage emerges through the gates, people in the crowd start to cry and the first flowers are thrown towards the coffin. A woman shouts: ‘Diana! Why are we without you?’
On top of the coffin are three wreaths of white lilies from the Spencer family. The largest is made up of 36 flowers — one for each year of Diana’s life.
At the front of the coffin is a small wreath on which rests a white envelope. On it is written the word ‘Mummy’. Inside is a note William and Harry have written for their mother.
The Abbey’s tenor bell begins to sound. It will mark every minute of Diana’s journey to Westminster.
US film director Steven Spielberg (right), actors Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, pop singer Sting with his wife Trudy Styler arrive for the funeral service of Diana
9.25am
A queue of famous people, including Richard Branson, David Frost, Cliff Richard and Sting are waiting to get into the Abbey. Esther Rantzen is carrying a small posy of roses from her garden, wrapped in kitchen foil.
The funeral cortege is turning into Hyde Park. In charge is Captain Richard Williams, who won an MC whilst serving with the United Nations in Cambodia, where he was held hostage by the Khmer Rouge. He is thinking of comrades he’s lost and of his family, but he is also concerned that the flowers being thrown will frighten the horses.
9.30am
The doors of Westminster Abbey open. As the congregation walk in, they are struck by the fact that it is warmer inside than outside. The Abbey is being heated by the vast array of television lights.
The skies over London are silent as all planes have been re-routed. For the crowds waiting along the funeral route, the only indication they have that the cortege is approaching is the sound of weeping.
On the night Diana became engaged to Prince Charles, Diana drove this route with a group of girlfriends squeezed into her Mini Metro. They talked and laughed about the great events that were to come when she was Queen.
Actor Tom Hanks, film director Steven Spielberg and designer Valentino at the funeral
10.20am
As the gun carriage comes down Constitution Hill, Steve Marsh, the officer in charge of the mounted police riding in front of the coffin, hears in his earpiece that the Queen has come out of Buckingham Palace and is standing by the West Gate with other members of the Royal Family. There is a great deal of urgent discussion on police radios as they deal with this unexpected security issue.
The Queen bows her head as the coffin passes. One by one other members of the family do the same.
Holding a ticket for seat B8, Mohamed Al Fayed arrives at Westminster Abbey with his wife Heini. Singer Bryan Adams comes up and shakes his hand. Al Fayed then finds his seat next to Diana’s stepmother Raine Spencer. They are old friends. Bryan Adams takes his seat with his girlfriend Cecilie Thomsen. It’s a strange day for her, as she’s convinced that last year Bryan and Diana became lovers.
10.22am
As the cortege enters the Mall, a lone piper on the pavement named Billy Jenkins starts to play Abide With Me.
Waiting in a side road are 500 people associated with charities Diana supported. Many are wearing black, others have put on colourful sweatshirts with sashes bearing the name of their charity.
In front of them, standing in a line, are Prince Philip, Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles. Philip Bartlett, one of the Welsh Guards carrying the coffin, sees William and Harry waiting ahead. He can feel his eyes filling with tears, but he knows he has to stay strong and not cry.
As the coffin passes, the princes bow their heads; Earl Spencer stares ahead and crosses himself. Prince Charles mutters some words of encouragement to Harry, and then all five start to walk behind the coffin, their security detail on either side, close to the crowd.
William had been reluctant to walk. ‘I’m not going to march in any bloody parade,’ he’d said. Prince Philip, who hadn’t planned to walk behind the coffin, replied: ‘If you don’t walk, you may regret it later. If I walk, will you walk with me?’ William keeps his head down, hiding behind his fringe.
The charity workers join the cortege behind the princes and Earl Spencer. Pat Barron from Help The Aged is trying not to step on the flowers that are being thrown towards the coffin. At the front, just behind William and Harry, Sarah Thomas is walking with her son Oliver who has the skin condition epidermolysis bullosa. Sarah keeps looking straight ahead at William, who still has his head down.
Steve Marsh, from the mounted police, hears someone in the crowd behind him shout: ‘You don’t deserve her!’ He knows he has to look straight ahead and keep the horses moving, praying the shout is harmless.
The Queen leaves for Westminster Abbey by car. The Royal Standard flying above Buckingham Palace is removed, and for the first time in history is replaced with a Union Flag that will fly at half-mast until midnight.
The hearse carring the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, arrives at the gates of Althorp House
10.30am
Standing in the crowd by the Cenotaph in Whitehall, 36-year-old Sally Bullpit from Hampshire watches the coffin pass by. She’s never been a supporter of Prince Charles, but as she watches him, she believes for the first time that he will be a great king. She starts to cry.
As they walk, Prince Philip occasionally tells William about the historical landmarks they are passing.
10.35am
For Charles Spencer, walking behind his sister’s coffin is the worst experience of his life. He’s struggling to keep his eyes straight ahead, and he’s anxious for his two nephews either side of him. The Earl was assured by Buckingham Palace earlier in the week that William and Harry wanted to walk behind the coffin, but he knows that if the experience is hard for him, it must be even worse for them.
Meanwhile Charles Spencer’s mother and sisters are entering Westminster Abbey. Frances Shand Kydd makes the sign of the cross and looks straight ahead as she walks to her seat. The Abbey already has painful memories for Frances — aged only 18 she walked up the aisle to marry Johnnie Spencer, 12 years her senior. It was the social event of the year, but proved to be an unhappy marriage.
SEVENTY-FIVE miles away, at the gates of Althorp, the only noise is the sound of the horses pulling the gun carriage coming from dozens of portable radios.
10.45am
Earl Spencer delivering his address to the congregation inside Westminster Abbey during the funeral service for his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales
As they walk through the arch at Horse Guards, the cortege is, for a moment, hidden from the public. Charles Spencer puts a protective hand on Harry’s shoulder.
The Queen arrives at Westminster Abbey. She’s wearing a plain black coat and a brooch of Queen Victoria’s. Prince Edward escorts the Queen Mother who is walking with a stick. She is well aware that the plan for today is based on the arrangements for her own funeral.
Inside the Abbey, attendants are hastily putting out plastic chairs, as there aren’t enough seats.
10.55am
After a one hour, 47-minute journey from Kensington Palace, Diana’s coffin arrives at Westminster Abbey. Prince William raises his head for the first time. Someone in the crowd calls out: ‘I can’t believe it! She’s gone!’
The bearer party of Welsh Guards is exhausted, but very gently lift the coffin from the gun carriage and carry it towards the Abbey’s Great West Door.
Under their tunics they have field dressings on their shoulders to alleviate the pain from the 50 stone (700 lb) coffin. Although they have rehearsed carrying a coffin many times, they have never carried one up steps. They carefully walk up the three steps into the Abbey, trying to keep the coffin as level as possible.
11am UK time/ Midday Paris
Big Ben strikes the hour and the congregation sings the National Anthem.
Then the 24 members of the Abbey choir sing verses from the Bible, leading the bearer party the length of the Abbey towards a catafalque in front of the altar. Martin Neary, the Master of the Choristers, walks in front. Earlier this week he paced out the entire route of the coffin from the Great West Door to the catafalque to ensure the music finishes on time. The choir have had only nine hours to rehearse for the service and to help the boys concentrate, Neary told them to imagine how they would feel if they lost their mother.
Leading the procession is former chorister James Wilkinson, who sang at the Queen’s Coronation. James has a lump in his throat as the congregation isn’t full of dignitaries, but people who knew Diana and loved her. He concentrates hard on not dropping the cross.
Every day for the past week, Trevor Rees-Jones’s mother and stepfather, Jill and Ernie, have visited him at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. This time they are bringing Jill’s other sons, Gareth and John, and Ernie’s son, Chris. On Thursday, Trevor, Diana’s bodyguard and the sole survivor of the Paris crash, endured an 11-hour operation, and is still sedated. Gareth goes straight over to his brother’s bed and starts chatting to him about the latest family news, even though he’s unconscious. John can’t bear to look at his brother and stares out of the window instead.
11.12am
The choir and congregation sing I Vow To Thee My Country. Prince William requested the hymn, as it was a favourite of his mother’s from her schooldays. It was also played at her wedding.
In Kensington Palace Gardens, assistant park manager Ray Brodie has retreated to his car so he can listen to the funeral on the radio. He has been working so hard all week overseeing the day-to-day running of operations in the gardens that he’s fallen asleep. Brodie will miss the whole service.
Around the world, more than two billion people are watching the funeral. There are a dozen television cameras in the Abbey. None of them will be trained on the Royal Family or the Spencers, as agreed with the broadcasters before the service.
11.15am
Standing in front of her sister’s coffin, Lady Sarah McCorquodale reads an eight-line stanza by A. Price Hughes, called If I Should Die and Leave You Here Awhile.
11.17am
Standing in the Abbey choir loft in front of the BBC Singers is soprano Lynne Dawson. They are about to sing the final movement of the Verdi Requiem. The piece was special to Diana, as it had been played at the first concert Charles had taken her to. Lynne is relieved that she is facing the altar and not having to look into the eyes of the hundreds of mourners in the nave.
11.22am
After the BBC Singers have sung the Requiem, Diana’s other sister, Lady Jane Fellowes, reads a poem by Henry Van Dyke. ‘Time is too slow for those who wait . . . ’ she begins, and there is a moment of shock, as Lady Jane sounds exactly like Diana.
11.26am
From the lectern, Prime Minister Tony Blair reads 1 Corinthians 13, the same Bible passage read at Charles and Diana’s wedding by the then Speaker of the House of Commons, George Thomas.
Prince William (left) and Prince Harry bowing their heads as their mother’s coffin is taken out of Westminster Abbey following her funeral service
11.29am
Taking his place at a grand piano, Elton John plays the opening chords of Candle In The Wind, the rewritten version of his 1974 hit about Marilyn Monroe.
Elton and Diana had fallen out a few months earlier over a book his Aids Foundation produced for which she wrote the introduction. She hadn’t realised the book contained both photographs of the Queen and semi-nude male models. Diana and Elton were reconciled just a few weeks before at Gianni Versace’s funeral in Milan, where they were seated next to each other. As he sobbed, Diana held his arm.
At the start of the last verse, Elton’s voice cracks. He said later: ‘I had to close my eyes, grit my teeth. I thought to myself: “You’ve got to get through this because she would have got through it, if the roles had been reversed.” ’
Watching the funeral at her home near Althorp is Lucy Coats, who became a close friend of ‘Spencer’, as the future princess was then known, while the two girls shared a dorm at West Heath, their boarding school in Kent.
She bought her first cassette tape from Diana, paying 20p for a well-worn copy of Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road.
Lucy exchanged many letters with her friend when romance with Prince Charles was blossoming, and was a guest at their ball at Buckingham Palace two days before the wedding. Lucy remembers tripping and falling flat on her face in front of the prince, and later watching the royal bride and groom-to-be dancing to disco music.
Lucy’s husband is taking care of their children so she can watch the funeral. He can only cook one dish so, as the sad drama unfolds around Westminster, a tearful Lucy is picking at scrambled eggs on toast.
Pop stars George Michael (top) and Elton John leave Westminster Abbey after the funeral
11.34am
Earl Spencer gets up from his seat at the foot of the pulpit. In his hands he has four pieces of paper on which he has his typed-out speech. There are some last-minute crossings out: a paragraph defending his sister from accusations of manipulating the media, and a line thanking Dodi Al Fayed ‘for making her last weeks ones of happiness’ have a line through them. ‘I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief . . .’ he begins.
The Earl declares that the princes’ blood family will do all they can to keep William and Harry from being ‘immersed in duty and tradition’. As he pays tribute to ‘the unique, the complex, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Diana’, he is close to tears and so exhausted, he forces himself to get the words out. Paul Burrell, in his seat in the choir stalls, thinks of a harsh letter Charles Spencer wrote to his sister just a year ago, saying that he was ‘a peripheral part of your life’ but that didn’t sadden him when he saw ‘the consternation and hurt your fickle friendship has caused so many’.
When the Earl finishes, there is silence. Then the Dean of Westminster, Dr Wesley Carr, hears what he thinks is rain. He looks up through the windows of the Abbey and he’s perplexed because the sky is blue. Then he realises it is the sound of applause from the crowds outside.
the Abbey congregation starts to applaud — even William and Harry join in. The Queen, Charles Spencer’s godmother, stares straight ahead.
11.53am
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, ends the prayers by inviting ‘the congregation, those in the streets outside and the millions around the world’ to say the Lord’s Prayer. It is the largest number of people in history to recite the prayer together.
The television cameras occasionally show a man in dark glasses in the middle of the congregation. His name is Hasnat Khan, a heart surgeon who had been in a relationship with Diana for two years until she ended it in June. The sunglasses were a present from the princess.
Midday
The bearers from the Welsh Guards carry Diana’s coffin for one final time. As they march slowly towards the Great West Door, the soldiers’ steel, toe-capped boots on the flagstones echo round the Abbey. The choir sings a piece written by the composer John Taverner that quotes Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.’ As the princes follow the coffin out of the Abbey, William squeezes Harry’s hand.
When the cortege reaches the Great West Door there is a minute’s silence observed across the nation. Prisoners at Dartmoor Prison are silent in their exercise yard, passengers and crew on the QE2 in the middle of the Atlantic bow their heads, all traffic lights in Aberdeen are held on red, crews on Scottish ferries throw wreaths into the sea, Elvis Presley fans at a convention keep the minute’s silence, then begin to sing Elvis’s I’ll Remember You.
12.06pm
The half-muffled bells of the Abbey ring out a quarter peal. The Welsh Guards place the coffin carefully into a black Daimler Sovereign hearse belonging to royal undertakers Leverton and Sons.
The hearse moves off to loud applause and begins its 75-mile journey to Althorp. The crowd immediately start throwing flowers. At the wheel is 58-year-old Sidney Clarke, a former electrician and the company’s most senior employee. Also in the car are Sidney’s boss, Keith Leverton, and Royal protection officer, Graham Craker, who was one of Diana’s favourites. There is concern that some members of the public may throw themselves in front of the hearse.
12.16pm
The Queen and Prince Philip walk out of Westminster Abbey, and they, too, are applauded. Inside, an Abbey verger is collecting the royal place names from the seats, in case they are needed again for the Queen Mother’s funeral.
12.25pm
At Hyde Park Corner, the hearse is joined by eight police motorcycle outriders, each of whom has escorted Diana’s car in the past few years. A rolling roadblock is operating to clear traffic for both half a mile ahead and half a mile behind the cortege.
A fleet of limousines carrying Prince Charles and his sons, the Spencer family, Paul Burrell and Diana’s driver, Colin Tebbutt, is driving through a side entrance of Euston Station and onto Platform 1. Waiting there is the five-carriage Royal Train that will take them to Long Buckby station close to Althorp. The funeral party take their seats in one of the train’s day lounge coaches. Also on board is a team of British Rail mechanics in case the train breaks down. The train will be pulled by two locomotives, named four years ago ‘Prince William’ and ‘Prince Harry’.
12.45pm
Bob Stewart, one of the police outriders escorting the hearse, is being hit on the head by bouquets of flowers which, despite his helmet, he finds off-putting. There are flowers on the roof of the hearse and driver Sidney Clarke has to use his windscreen wipers to be able to see the road ahead.
Ten minutes behind the cortege is a spare hearse, also accompanied by a police escort, in case Sidney’s car breaks down.
The Welsh Guards, who carried Diana’s coffin, are back at their London barracks and being treated to a glass of champagne and a small glass of port — a tradition of the Guards after a ceremonial occasion. Later today, they will be flying back to Northern Ireland to finish their six-month tour of duty.
1.00pm
The hearse joins the M1 at Staples Corner and Sidney Clarke brings it to a halt. Graham Craker gets out of the car, removes the flowers that are blocking Sidney’s view and places them carefully on the hard shoulder.
Pictured: The hearse carrying Princess Diana’s coffin to Althorp in Northamptonshire
1.30pm
Cars on the southbound M1 are pulling over to watch the hearse go by. Meanwhile, the passengers of three London buses are stranded at the motorway’s Scratchwood Services. The buses had accidentally found themselves in front of the funeral cortege and instead of terminating at Golders Green as planned, the police forced the drivers to keep going another seven miles until they could pull over.
On the Royal Train, the Queen’s Private Secretary, Sir Robert Fellowes, mentions to Earl Spencer that the Queen would consider reinstating Diana’s full royal title. He refuses the offer.
2.10pm
Alone on the platform at Long Buckby, Althorp’s local railway station, is the managing director of North London Railways, Charles Belcher. He’s remembering the time he met Princess Diana at King’s Cross, just before she boarded a sleeper to Scotland. Her last-minute request for apple juice caused a flurry of activity as his staff tried to find a shop that was open.
The Royal Train pulls in and the funeral party disembarks. Belcher steps forward to shake hands with Prince Charles who says: ‘Thank you for meeting us. I’m sorry for all the disruption to your services we must have caused.’
3pm
The Queen walks with bishops and Prince Philip during the funeral for Diana
Elton John is at Townhouse Studios in West London recording the new version of Candle In The Wind with a string quartet. George Martin is behind the glass, producing. Candle In The Wind will be the fastest-selling single of all time, shifting 658,000 copies on the first day of its release.
In Paris, the streets are quiet —most Parisians are watching the funeral on TV. Trevor Rees-Jones’s family haven’t felt up to watching, so they have dodged the photographers outside their apartment and headed down the Champs-Élysées. For the first time they walk along the Seine to the site of the accident — the Alma Tunnel. There are hundreds of flowers and cards placed around a gilt monument. The family grasps for the first time the magnitude of the grief at Diana’s death.
3.32pm
Diana’s former lover James Hewitt is at home in Devon. With him are his mother, sisters and girlfriend, Camilla Courage. As he watches the hearse arrive at Althorp, he feels sad that Diana will be buried in a lonely island grave, instead of with her father in the family vault.
Inside the grounds, the Royal Standard is taken off the coffin and replaced with the red, white and gold flag of the Spencer family.
3.35pm
Seated around a long rosewood table in a drawing room at Althorp are the Spencer family, Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, Paul Burrell and Colin Tebbutt. Charles Spencer sits at the head of the table and, in the aftermath of his speech from the Abbey pulpit, conversation is stilted. William and Harry aren’t talking much. A butler whispers in Charles Spencer’s ear and the Earl leaves the room. After a few minutes he returns and says: ‘Diana is home.’
The funeral party assembles outside the house and starts to follow the coffin, now carried by soldiers from the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment. They cross to a small island on a temporary wooden pontoon bridge built by the army the day before. Hessian has been placed all along the bridge to ensure the soldiers don’t slip. They place the coffin on planks placed above the grave. All the soldiers have tears in their eyes.
4pm
In London, preparations for the removal of the hundreds of flowers, cards and soft toys begin. Over the next few days, liveried footmen from Kensington Palace will bring bin liners to the scores of volunteers, many of them guides and scouts in tears, separating the flowers from their cellophane wrapping. Thousands of soft toys will be cleaned and distributed to children’s hospitals. All the cards will be sent to Althorp.
The BAe 146 that flew Diana home from Paris last Sunday, is taking the Queen and Prince Philip from RAF Northolt back to Balmoral.
4.30pm
The burial of Diana, conducted by the Reverend Victor Malan, a close friend of the Spencer family, is drawing to a close. Messages in sealed envelopes written by William, Harry and Diana’s nieces and nephews are placed on the coffin. The soldiers then lower the coffin into the grave. The Reverend Malan ends with a blessing, then the mourners throw a handful of earth into the grave. A gold plaque on the coffin says ‘Diana — Princess of Wales 1961-1997’. Prince Harry cries for the first time that day.
Alone with his thoughts, Earl Spencer lays flowers on the island in the grounds of the Spencer family home at Althorp, Northamptonshire where his sister Diana was buried
4.45pm
Frances Shand Kydd and Paul Burrell are sitting in a small stone temple that overlooks the island. Frances, smoking a cigarette, says: ‘Well, at least I had her for nine months, Paul. All on my own. She was mine for nine months.’
5.15pm
The funeral party has returned from the island to the Althorp drawing room and is having tea. Charles Spencer has turned on a television, which is showing highlights of the funeral service from the Abbey. William and Harry watch in silence.
As the TV report gets to the moment when the Earl begins his speech, Prince Charles has seen enough. ‘I think’, he says to his sons, ‘it’s time we were leaving.’
Additional reporting: NIGEL BUNYAN
Jonathan Mayo is the author of Titanic: Minute By Minute and D-Day: Minute By Minute (Short Books, both £8.99). To order copies for £7.19 (valid until today), visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over £15.