The Queen and Prince Philip’s beloved niece and nephew Lady Sarah Chatto and the Earl of Snowdon will be among the 30 mourners at his funeral on Friday.
Lady Sarah and David Armstrong-Jones, formerly styled as Viscount Linley, are the children of Princess Margaret and her first husband, Lord Snowdon, and will attend with Lady Sarah’s husband, Daniel Chatto.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen faced ‘some very difficult’ decisions as she selected the 30 guests permitted under Covid-19 rules, from the original 800-strong congregation, and had tried to ensure all branches of the duke’s family were represented.
The decision to invite David, Lady Sarah and her husband is an indication of how highly they are regarded within the royal family, and is a tribute to the close relationship the Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed with his sister-in-law Princess Margaret.
The Queen is particularly close to Lady Sarah, who is understood to remind Her Majesty of her late sister.
The Queen and Prince Philip’s beloved niece and nephew Sarah Chatto and the Earl of Snowdon will join mourners at Philip’s funeral
Earl Snowdon will also be amoung mourners who attend the funeral on Saturday (pictured with Prince Philip)
Daughter of the Queen’s late sister, Princess Margaret, Lady Sarah, is one of the most low-key Royals yet holds a very special place in Her Majesty’s affections. Pictured: The Queen with Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones
David and Lady Sarah enjoyed a close relationship with the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and their children growing up – often joining the family on holiday – and remain so to this day.
One royal insider previously revealed: ‘The Queen adores Sarah and seeks out her company as often as possible. She is her absolute favourite younger Royal.
‘They are hugely at ease in each other’s company. Much giggling can be heard when they are together. They share a sense of loyalty, fun, duty and the ridiculous.’
One acquaintance said: ‘Sarah is very unassuming; shy and almost embarrassed with no grandeur at all. Take royal events — she’ll be on the balcony, but she never pushes herself to the middle or the front, like some.’
Certainly their inclusion in the small group of 30 is an indication as to just how close they remain today.
The trio will join the Queen and Philip’s four children and eight grandchildren and their respective spouses at the service in St George’s Chapel on Saturday.
These include Jack Brooksbank, the husband of Eugenie, daughter of the duchess and the Duke of York, and Beatrice’s husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.
The 67-year-old Countess of Mountbatten – Penelope ‘Penny’ Knatchbull, previously known as Lady Romsey and later Lady Brabourne – was also invited.
Three German relatives – whose ancestors were denied a place at Princess Elizabeth and Philip’s wedding because of anti-German feeling after the second war – have been included.
Others on the guest list include the Queen’s first cousins Princess Alexandra, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, who loyally supported the monarch and Philip by carrying out royal duties over the decades.
But the most prominent name missing from the list is Prince Harry’s wife Meghan, who has stayed at home in Los Angeles.
Also is missing is the Queen’s cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, 78, who is not a working royal.
There was also not room for the spouses of the Queen’s cousins – the Duchess of Gloucester and the Duchess of Kent, nor Prince Michael’s often controversial wife, Princess Michael of Kent.
However Lady Sarah’s husband made the cut.
Lady Sarah remains close to her cousin, Prince Charles.
The pair can still be found sketching and doing water colours on the Balmoral estate, chatting easily or ‘hunched over their easels in harmonious silence, as they have been for years’.
She was a bridesmaid to Diana at her wedding, and the pair — who had just a three-year age gap between them — had been friendly even before Diana’s engagement.
Sarah is a devoted mother to her and Daniel’s two handsome, charismatic sons: Samuel, 24, Charles’s godson, and has been a Page of Honour to the Queen, and Arthur, 22.
Linley, married Serena Stanhope, daughter of the 12th Earl of Harrington, in 1993, and they have two children, Charles, 21, and Margarita, 18. The couple divorced last year.
It was when Lady Sarah met Daniel Chatto whilst working as a wardrobe assistant on ‘Heat and Dust’, in which dashing actor Chatto had a small role, that her love life became serious (the couple are pictured here on their wedding day on July 14 1994)
Serena Armstrong-Jones, Countess of Snowdon and David Armstrong-Jones at the Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition dinner, V&A Museum, in London on January 29 2019
David, who inherited the title Earl of Snowdon on the death of his father in January 2017, is known as the ‘royal carpenter’ because of his high-end furniture business, Linley.
As with their cousins, David and Lady Sarah’s children will not attend the funeral, but they would no doubt have been included in a larger congregation.
Full details of Prince Philip’s funeral which he planned himself were revealed today, including that the Queen will travel in the cortege this Saturday in a state Bentley, and Harry will not walk side by side with William.
The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex, who will be reunited for the first time since Harry’s bombshell Oprah Winfrey chat, will be separated by cousin Peter Phillips as they walk in a line behind their grandfather’s coffin.
When the coffin is taken into the chapel, William will move ahead of his brother as the royal family arrives in pairs. Officials confirmed royal men will wear morning coats with their medals and the women will wear day dresses.
David, Lady Sarah and Daniel will be among the members of the Royal Family who travel to St George’s Chapel by car.