Queen wanted to be buried next to her father, say experts

The Queen didn’t want ‘pomp and ceremony for herself’ and simply wanted to be buried next to her father – ‘but she recognised the role she played’, according to royal experts.

Her late Majesty, who died at Balmoral aged 96, was laid to rest in a moving private ceremony at Windsor’s King George VI Memorial Chapel on Monday night – following a huge and prestigious public funeral at Westminster Abbey.

But one royal commentator has speculated that the Queen wouldn’t have wanted such a service and only agreed to it out of duty. 

Royal biographer Penny Junor told People: ‘She wouldn’t have wanted that pomp and ceremony for herself, but she recognised the role she played… Even in death, she was still serving.’ 

The Queen’s final resting place has been marked with a simple slab reuniting her for eternity with her adored husband Prince Philip and her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.

Historian Robert Hardman, author of Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, said: ‘She had no wish to see a statue of herself or to even have a separate burial chamber within St. George’s Chapel.

‘As her cousin Margaret Rhodes once said to me, “She wanted to make her father proud”.’

The George VI Memorial Chapel in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where Queen Elizabeth was interred on Monday 

It was a simple yet poignant request of the late Queen – for, following the historic funeral, Her Majesty was interred as plainly as she’d wished.

And that was not in a grand separate burial chamber within St George’s chapel – but next to her beloved father, with a simple inscription bearing her name. 

In the tomb, the ledger stone – an inscribed slab laid into the floor – had previously been marked with the names of the Queen’s parents in gold lettering on black Belgian marble.

But following the funeral, Buckingham Palace revealed that a new slab was installed overnight with the names of the late monarch, her husband and parents along with the dates of their birth and death.

In order, it reads George VI 1895-1952, Elizabeth 1900-2002, Elizabeth II 1926-2022, Philip 1921-2021.

The George VI Memorial Chapel in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, where the Queen now lies alongside her family

Between the two couples is a single metal Garter Star, the insignia of the Order of the Garter, the country’s oldest and most noble order of chivalry.

All four were members of the order and St George’s Chapel, where the memorial chapel is situated, is its spiritual home.

The humble stone annexe, which can be viewed through a metal gate inside St George’s Chapel, also contains the ashes of the late monarch’s sister, Margaret.

The public will from next week be able to view the Queen’s final resting place but will have to pay for the privilege. 

King Charles follows his mother’s coffin draped in the Royal Standard with the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s orb and sceptre, as it is carried out of Westminster Abbey after her funeral

The chapel, which is currently closed during the period of royal morning, will reopen to visitors on Thursday September 29 as part of a general tour of Windsor Castle, costing up to £28.50 for adults and £15.50 for children.

The castle is only open five days a week from Thursday through to Monday – but St George’s Chapel is closed to the public on Sundays as it is a living place of worship.

Castle tours are run by the Royal Collection Trust (RCT), a registered charity and a department of the Royal Household. No profits are kept by the Royal Family.

Income generated from admissions and other commercial activities is used for the upkeep of the Royal Collection, one of the largest and most important art collections in the world and one of the last great European royal collections to remain intact.