Thousands Pay Tribute as Britain Says Final Farewell to Its Queen

More than 100 world leaders, including President Biden, attended the funeral for Queen
Elizabeth II, and Britons lined the streets for a procession that took her to her final resting
place at Windsor Castle.

LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest on Monday after a majestic state funeral
that drew tens of millions of Britons together in a vast expression of grief and gratitude, as
they bade farewell to a sovereign whose seven-decade reign had spanned their lives and
defined their times.

It was the culmination of 10 days of mourning since the queen died on Sept. 8 in Scotland —
a highly choreographed series of rituals that fell amid a deepening economic crisis and a
fraught political transition in Britain — and yet everything about the day seemed destined to
be etched into history.

Tens of thousands of people lined the route of the cortege past the landmarks of London. In
Hyde Park, people watching the service on large screens joined in “The Lord’s Prayer” when
it was recited at Westminster Abbey. Thousands more cheered, many strewing flowers in the
path of her glass-topped hearse, as the queen’s coffin was driven to Windsor Castle, where
she was buried next to her husband, Prince Philip.

“In this changing world, she was a pillar of the old world,” said Richard Roe, 36, who works
in finance in Zurich and flew home for the funeral. “It’s nice to have something that’s stable
and stands for good values.”

An unbroken thread of sadness ran through the day, but also an acute sense of uncertainty.
The queen, who died at 96, was one of the last living links to World War II and the twilight
of Britain’s imperial age. The country she embodied with such dignity has fundamentally
changed.

A new Britain is taking shape among the diverse crowds that turned out with their iPhones
and Instagram accounts to document the funeral. But its contours, and the role of the
monarchy, are still up for grabs, as people struggle with less regal concerns like rising gas
and electricity bills, and a looming recession.

On Tuesday, Britain will return to wrestling with the gravest economic crisis in a generation.
Fears about its public finances have driven the pound to its lowest levels against the dollar
since 1985. The survival of the monarchy’s far-flung realm is in question, as Caribbean
countries debate whether to cast off the king as their head of state.

Britain’s uncertain future, however, was a matter for another day, as it paid tribute to one of
the great symbols of its past. More than 100 world leaders, including President Biden and
Emperor Naruhito of Japan, converged on London, the largest such gathering since the
funeral of Nelson Mandela in 2013 in South Africa.

Years in the planning, the tribute to the queen was both intimate and grand: from the gun
carriage that carried her flag-draped coffin through the streets of London to a lone bagpiper
playing his lament, its haunting strains carried aloft in the hushed nave of Westminster
Abbey.

“The pattern of many leaders is to be exalted in life and forgotten after death,” the archbishop
of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said in a eulogy that seemed to speak to a world plagued by

misrule. Not so of Elizabeth, of whom he said: “Few leaders receive the outpouring of love
that we have seen.”

To judge by the tear-streaked faces, and the cries of “God bless the queen,” in the streets and
parks, his words were not an overstatement.

“She is everything that I am proud to be British about,” said Bea McArthur, 38, a hospital
worker who traveled from Hampshire, England, on Friday, camping out with her two
daughters and a friend to secure a spot in the front row of the parade route.

“She made a promise when she was 21, and she did not falter,” Ms. McArthur said. “When
she first became queen, there weren’t many women in powerful roles, and she blew everyone
else out of the water.”

Mr. Roe, the Zurich businessman, was more upbeat. “I think people have dealt with the grief
side of it now,” he said. “This is more of a last goodbye, a celebration.”
The service was also designed to showcase Britain’s imperial history, its constitutional
democracy and its Commonwealth. The carriage used for the queen’s coffin was first used for
that purpose in Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901. The new prime minister, Liz Truss, read
from the Gospel of John, while the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Patricia
Scotland, read from Corinthians (“O death, where is thy sting?”).

Archbishop Welby described the queen as a beacon of hope. He recalled a speech she gave
during the coronavirus pandemic, when she promised Britons enduring isolating lockdowns,
“We will meet again,” the refrain of a cherished World War II-era song by Vera Lynn.

“All who follow the queen’s example, and inspiration of trust and faith in God,” he declared,
“can with her say, ‘We will meet again.’”

Britain has not held a state funeral since 1965, when it buried Winston Churchill, the wartime
leader who acted as a mentor to a young Elizabeth after she unexpectedly came to the throne
on the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952.

There were echoes of that history as the queen’s cortege rolled past statues of Churchill and
George VI. But there were also glimpses of the royal family’s future. Prince George, 9, who
is the elder son of Prince William and second in line to the throne, stood in the front row at
the abbey, along with his 7-year-old sister, Princess Charlotte. Both sang dutifully from their
hymnals.

The new king, Charles III, was a quiet presence on a day devoted to his mother. On her
coffin, next to a wreath of roses, hydrangea and dahlias — all arranged, by order of the king,
without the use of floral foam to make it more sustainable — he had left a handwritten note,
“In loving and devoted memory, Charles R.”

He marched behind the coffin as it was conveyed to Westminster Abbey from Westminster
Hall, where she had lain in state for four days, viewed by tens of thousands of people,
including dignitaries like Mr. Biden and ordinary people who lined up in what became known
as “The Queue,” waiting up to 24 hours to pay their respects.

He marched behind it on its procession up Whitehall, down The Mall and past Buckingham
Palace, before reaching Wellington Arch, where an honor guard transferred the coffin to the
hearse. And he saluted as a military band played a wistful last rendition of “God Save the
Queen” when she departed.
The procession, a mile and a quarter long, projected the full splendor of the monarchy: seven
groups, each with its own marching band; detachments from the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British armed forces; and mounted soldiers
from the Household Cavalry.

Charles, wearing a Royal Navy tailcoat and carrying a sword, was joined by members of the
royal family, their turbulent recent history traced in their choice of dress. Prince Andrew,
who served in the Royal Navy during the Falklands War, wore a morning suit rather than a
uniform, reflecting his banishment from royal duties because of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the
convicted sexual predator.

Prince Harry also wore a suit because of his withdrawal from royal duties when he moved to
the United States in 2020 with his American-born wife, Meghan. He had received the king’s
permission to wear a uniform to stand vigil over the queen’s coffin on Saturday, but it did not
have her monogram, E.R., on its shoulders, denoting his diminished status.

The royal family, Archbishop Welby said, was grieving as any family would, but in this case,
it had to do it “in the brightest spotlight.”

The spotlight still shone bright, but the setting was more intimate after the queen’s coffin
arrived at Windsor, the turreted castle where she had spent most of her final days, sequestered
during the pandemic. In April 2021, she buried Philip, her husband of 73 years, in an austere
funeral at St. George’s Chapel there that was memorable for images of the queen, isolated
and masked in a choir stall.

As her hearse rolled up the Long Walk, the tree-lined boulevard that leads to the castle, it was
cheered by more crowds and flanked by a detachment of the queen’s Grenadier Guards and
Household Cavalry.

But as the cortege drew closer to the castle, these symbols of royalty gave way to more
personal reminders of the queen’s life there: her Fell pony, Emma, ears and tail twitching as
she watched the cortege pass; and two of her corgis, Muick and Sandy, waiting patiently by
the door.

If anything, the ceremony at Windsor, known as the committal, was even more laden with
ritual than the funeral. Before the final hymn, the crown jeweler removed the imperial state
crown, the orb and the scepter — precious regalia symbolizing the crown — from the coffin
and placed them on the altar.

As a totem of the end of his service, the queen’s lord chamberlain, the most senior officer in
the royal household, broke his wand of office into two pieces and placed them on to the
coffin, to be buried with his sovereign.

The coffin was then lowered into the royal vault, where the queen was interred next to Philip
in a private family ceremony later in the evening. Once again, the queen’s piper played a
mournful lament, its sound dying out as he walked slowly away from the chapel.

In a last reminder of the monarchy’s continuity, the congregation sang, “God save the King.”
Charles, his face bearing the weight of grief and, perhaps, the burdens of his new job, looked
on wordlessly.
1980
December 08
John Lennon shot

John Lennon, a former member of the Beatles, the rock group that transformed popular
music in the 1960s, is shot and killed by an obsessed fan in New York City. 

The 40-year-old artist was entering his luxury Manhattan apartment building when Mark
David Chapman shot him four times at close range with a .38-caliber revolver. Lennon,
bleeding profusely, was rushed to the hospital but died en route. Chapman had received an
autograph from Lennon earlier in the day and voluntarily remained at the scene of the
shooting until he was arrested by police. For a week, hundreds of bereaved fans kept a vigil
outside the Dakota–Lennon’s apartment building–and demonstrations of mourning were held
around the world.

John Lennon was one half of the singing-songwriting team that made the Beatles the most
popular musical group of the 20th century. The other band leader was Paul McCartney, but
the rest of the quartet–George Harrison and Ringo Starr–sometimes penned and sang their
own songs as well. Hailing from Liverpool, England, and influenced by early American rock
and roll, the Beatles took Britain by storm in 1963 with the single “Please Please Me.”
“Beatlemania” spread to the United States in 1964 with the release of “I Want to Hold Your
Hand,” followed by a sensational U.S. tour. With youth poised to break away from the
culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the “Fab Four,” with their exuberant music and good-
natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift.

The Beatles sold millions of records and starred in hit movies such as A Hard Day’s
Night (1964). Their live performances were near riots, with teenage girls screaming and
fainting as their boyfriends nodded along to the catchy pop songs. In 1966, the Beatles gave
up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967’s Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a
masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles’ music remained relevant to youth throughout the
great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius
of the Lennon-McCartney team.

Lennon was considered the intellectual Beatle and certainly was the most outspoken of the
four. He caused a major controversy in 1966 when he declared that the Beatles were “more
popular than Jesus,” prompting mass burnings of Beatles’ records in the American Bible Belt.
He later became an anti-war activist and flirted with communism in the lyrics of solo hits like
“Imagine ,” recorded after the Beatles disbanded in 1970. In 1975, Lennon dropped out of
the music business to spend more time with his Japanese-born wife, Yoko Ono, and their son,
Sean. In 1980, he made a comeback with Double-Fantasy, a critically acclaimed album that
celebrated his love for Yoko and featured songs written by her.

On December 8, 1980, their peaceful domestic life on New York’s Upper West Side was
shattered by 25-year-old Mark David Chapman. Psychiatrists deemed Chapman a borderline
psychotic. He was instructed to plead insanity, but instead he pleaded guilty to murder. He
was sentenced to 20 years to life. In 2000, New York State prison officials denied Chapman a
parole hearing, telling him that his “vicious and violent act was apparently fueled by your
need to be acknowledged.” He remains behind bars.

John Lennon is memorialized in “Strawberry Fields,” a section of Central Park across the
street from the Dakota that Yoko Ono landscaped in honor of her husband.