Those young men carrying Her Majesty's coffin must have been terrified.

[Minee]

I've never carried a coffin and imagine it must be an emotional and scary thing to do in normal circumstances, but imagine carrying the Queen. With the whole world watching too.

Hats off to them,

I think it’s up to whoever arranges the funeral and the advice of the undertakers as to how it goes, combined with regional/ religious/ cultural expectations, but Im pretty sure the passenger doesn’t give a shit if they’re being carried by family, professionals, rolled in on a gurney, skateboards, slip’n’slide, whatever.

@Dalaidramailama i think quite a few people on here might be “shocked” at my family’s (Irish, catholic) tradition of having the deceased in an open casket in the living room overnight while the ladies sit round saying the rosary and the men are in the kitchen playing cards and getting wankered. I guess it’s an interesting tradition but I don’t expect any brownie points for how “authentic” it is.
Myself I plan on being put through a wood chipper which feeds into a tank of piranhas, while a brass band plays an orchestral rendition of “Big Balls” by ACDC. Everybody’s different.

Oh I see, you commented on my situation after I had previously used an emoji because you think someone should be man enough to carry a coffin. Sorry if that did bother you.

I think if you go back and look, it looks very much like I made a separate post about wheeling in a coffin, you tagged me and mentioned twice how shocked that made you.
Clearly we disagree. I won't derail the thread more, but competitive grieving isn't very important.

As I understand it they were gamekeepers from the estate so not exactly trained for it. No doubt immensely proud to be doing it though.

@Palmfrond

Who wants brownie points? I’ve already stated I’ve never taken my Irish families traditions as the total norm, I mean you’ve got to be a special sort of stupid if you think open caskets are the norm in this country (been to a few of them mind).

My point was I’ve been to many atheist funerals too in my time and they’ve all had family members who carry coffins. My husband and his family are all atheists and do this. Clearly people are different and that’s fine but it was also fine for me to be shocked.

@Sunshineday2

Competetive grieving? What are you even talking about? It’s a difference of opinion that’s all. There is no right or wrong, I was merely stating my families culture and norm. I got jumped on for saying I was shocked that people wheeled in family members on a thread discussing this very matter about coffins etc.

Good grief….

Mostly at the funerals I've been to coffins were carried in by family/friends. But there have been a few exceptions and I've seen one wheeled in.

In my family the coffin has always been carried in by family. My OH did it for his father, brother, cousin and Aunt. 3 of my sons did it for him, with with his brother and 2 of his nephews. People are proud to be asked and are proud to do it. But anyone can say no.

Referring back to some of the comments on here, this is no judgement on how other people do funerals.

Oh heck, I only meant because there's a lot of competitive grieving on the thread! I was just trying to end the conversation on a polite 'lets agree to disagree on how this conversation went' note 🙂. I'll go now!

Okay, but saying you are “shocked” by something that totally isn’t shocking seems to be more like you promoting the authenticity of your own experience, a little bit to the denigration of others’.

@Sunshineday2

honestly you might take this the wrong way and I’m not being sarcastic but I really do wish you well. We all do what we think feels right within our own family cultures. I genuinely was not being “shocked” in a twatty way. I’ve been to many, many funerals (religious and non religious) and just not witnessed it. So it was actually quite interesting for me to learn.

Seeing as it's been mentioned... I've got a question about lead lining of the coffins... surely unless they vacuum out the air, there is air in them and therefore there will be decomposition? So what's the point of the lead lining?

@MaggieFS to stop any of it escaping through the wood I think.

I doubt the queen dedicated her life to public service until her actual last days only to have some of this nonsense happen at the end.

That was the transfer from Balmoral to the hearse - so done off camera.

Separately, if the lead was 2mm thick then the lead alone would weigh 200kg - 1mm would be 100kg. Say 50kg for the Queen (though realistically probably less). Then according to Google a standard Oak coffin would weigh about 200lb so about 90 kg. So I think the whole lot together would easily be a quarter of a tonne.

It isn't being "hauled around the country". It's a car journey to Edinburgh, a short lying in state there, followed by a plane journey to London.

I’ve heard BBC say coffin weighs quarter tonne, ie 250kg.

Given a lead lined coffin is so specific, presumably The Queen's had been made some time ago and travelled with her in recent years, and possibly also in earlier times if she was more than e.g, 12 hours away.

Give his age, Charles' might also already exist?

What an odd thought to know that one's coffin was ready and waiting.

That’s still only about 40kg each assuming 6 carriers

It’s 40kg of hard corners digging into your shoulder when you can only see the back of the bloke in front’s head for any kind of reference as to where you’re going. Trust me, it’s bloody awkward. And 40kg is still 40kg! Who are you, Jeff Capes?

Only 40kg? Lmao!

I remember one of the pall bearers slipping when they were carrying Diana's coffin.

I agree. It’s the norm

Neither have I. Certainly there wasn’t anyone in the family physically strong enough to carry either of my parents’ coffin; it wasn’t even suggested.
I accept it’s a lovely tradition in some families but not one that I have ever seen.

There were eight pallbearers carrying the coffin from the hearse into Holyrood yesterday. I guess due to the weight of it.

It isn't the "norm" it's what some people do whereas others don't. No one in my family has carried the family coffins I've seen, it's been done by the funeral company.

I’ve never seen a coffin carried by anyone not even the funeral people. Just wheeled in on a trolley