Do govt employee find out early about the Queen’s death?

[Ginandpink]

My brother said they were told early, doesn’t make sense?

It depends what part of the government, it's a huge organisation. Some people would have had regular updates, others seen it on the news with everyone else

Some, but not all. Which I thought was vaguely obvious?

DS2 is involved with the Police (not MET) and we received an email earlier this afternoon postponing and event due to take place next week, which made me slightly suspicious; but that's not the same as 'knowing,' like some people who's second cousin's wife's brother works in a Palace. It's just educated guess work.

Also... the lunch time announcement would never have been made, BBC schedules never been cleared etc, if the announcement behind the scenes (e.g. not the public statement) hadn't been considerably more obvious.

Kept from them?

what do you mean?

I was reading about it from about 2ish and couldnt believe that papers were publishing such tributes to the Queen from other nations and leaders which almost read as if they were obituary type statements but wishing her well, they didnt add up and thats what made me think that she had either died or was dying then. Then when it was announced that the programmes on the BBC had been scrapped I thought she must have died by then

If she actually died a while before they announced it / the other Royals arrived then it was brutal to not wait until Harry arrived before sharing it.

Not long before they announced her death, Evan Davies (I think?) on r4 was reminding somebody that they weren't doing an obituary

Actually for some the answer is yes. Gold command meetings began to be scheduled before the public announcement. You don't call those meetings without telling people why they are being called.

@Whiskers4 couldn’t he have just checked the news?

It was obvious something was seriously wrong the minute BBC one went to rolling news this afternoon, they were hardly going to get to 7pm, stand everyone down and put Eastenders on.

quite, it was clearly coming

I am positive this is what's happened, and I agree with you.

Her body will be taken to holyrood palace in Edinburgh for a couple of days (probably tomorrow) followed by a service at St Cathedral (about half a mile up the royal mile from Holyrood) and then she’ll be taken by royal train from Waverley station to London for further proceedings and funeral in London.

You might find this article from 2017 interesting.

amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/16/what-happens-when-queen-elizabeth-dies-london-bridge

The privvy Council meeting on zoom being cancelled last night was a fairly major clue in fairness. Being told to bring a black tie this morning in that context, really doesn't suggest that she definitely died significantly earlier than this afternoon.

It was fairly obvious from Huw and Nick desparately trying to keep their shit together for hours before the announcement that they knew.

My friend is a London Met officer and he commented about 3:30 he’d got emails cancelling meetings for coming weeks and had been advised he may need to cancel some upcoming leave so we were musing (but in a ‘maybe this week’ way), but he didn’t ‘know’. I guess whomever was moving his calendar around probably knew it had happened or was imminent somehow. He’d had the leave warning before with Philip but not the meetings going.

Do you know what time?

I find it weird how so many people have a friend, husband, etc who found out beforehand & told them. Why are they all so loose lipped?!

We had a meeting just after 4.30pm and were told her death was ‘imminent’ (expected over the next couple of days). I do wonder if she was already dead then.

Our work will be affected by her death so to give us a heads up. Didn’t give much notice though.

Don’t they have set times that they report on the death of the monarch though? 11am and 6pm - or am I making that up?

3.30 is roughly the time of the email we received from the Police too.

There are extensive protocols and plans to be put in place nationwide, not just in London and Scotland: people will rock up to anywhere and everywhere 'official' tomorrow to mourn. Guildhalls, palaces, etc. There will need to be a co-ordinated response and officers available to do this. I can't believe some people don't understand this and think that every single person in the country finds out when the BBC/Sky news tells them?!

The Queen had many grandchildren. They didn't wait for the others either. Harry isn't any more special than e.g. Zara

DH was told very early afternoon. He is involved with some of the Protocols.
My office was also told shortly after.

Even very senior officials at some gov departments did not know till the announcement.

The privvy Council meeting on zoom being cancelled last night was a fairly major clue in fairness.

If she was so ill last night, they thought death was imminent, the Family would have been called to her bed side last night.

I find it highly unlikely things started being cancelled for this reason, but not one told her children and grandchildren to get there quickly.

The first posts on here were around 12:40 so knowing anything before then is impressive and I suspect means you are high up.

Having seen William with his children yesterday and the way the new Gvt was announced Tuesday/Wednesday would just have been an awareness she was 96 years old and it could happen at any time.

I dont think alarm bells would be until this morning (as it took until 5 for them to arrive)

I approve actually of the way it was handled - give an announcement to prepare and then allow for what needs to be done to be done before officially announced

I'm fairly sure her death prompted the 'concern' statement around lunchtime

But the PM's not as important as mumsnetters' husbands and sisters in law who work in Whitehall and banks, you must know that.