to finally share this secret!

[hereforever]

Name changed as potentially identifying, but been here forever.

Many years ago (deliberately being vague but 10+ years ago) my dh came home from work and said he has a massive secret to tell me, that I couldn't tell another soul.....that his company was designing and building the Queen's Hearse. The business is just a small family-run firm based in the North, and whilst they had been making Jaguar hearses for years this was totally unexpected.
The whole team worked really hard on it and it was built with the utmost secrecy and respect, kept hidden until now - very few people even knew it existed (it's been hard sometimes not sharing with family).

I'm having mixed emotions since we saw it on tv last night - as I want to shout from the rooftops how proud I am of DH and the team but so far this is the only place I've shared as I don't want to look crass in what is a very sad time for our country.

So AIBU to finally share this secret and whilst it is very sad, also be very honoured to be part of our Queen's final journey.

Oh wowser I would have struggled to keep this a secret!!
You must be very proud of your DH and his colleagues. It's just to shame the usual MN misery mongers are out in force to piss on your parade!!

I think it looked fantastic OP. My brother used to design cars for Aston Martin, so I get the craftsmanship and the sense of pride you have.

Thankyou for sharing your story of the hearse, I thought it was beautiful when I saw it last night, the lines are so elegant and truly befitting the queen

William Purves? Yes, shame they left the sticker in the window for half the journey!

(Not that it bothered me, but it must have bothered some people as it was removed halfway through the drive)

No, that was the Scottish funeral director. Different car to the one OP is talking about.

OP many congratulations to your DH and his work colleagues - ignore all those that cant see what they have done.

If it was considered 'intrusive' to look at a coffin, they wouldn't be decorated with flowers and deliberately placed in highly distinctive vehicles with glass sides that are specifically designed to make them visible.

It's fine for you to be squeamish about death and for you to not want to see a coffin, but you must surely understand that you are the outlier here, given that almost every culture in the world has some sort of viewing of the coffin, or the body itself, as part of funeral rites. So clearly it's pretty normal and therefore, by definition, not 'weird'.

There are tombs in most history C of E cathedrals which are on display for people to look at it. Often they have a stone effigy of the dead person on top. Would you look away from that? That is also a coffin containing a body. They are placed there precisely because people wanted them to be looked at by strangers.

I've been to churches in Mediterranean countries where the skulls and arm bones of the dead people are displayed in a little glass compartment on the side of the tombs, so if you think it's 'intrusive' or 'weird' to look at a coffin draped in the royal standard, god knows how you'd fare if you lived somewhere like that.

Is it different from other hearses? Aren't they all kind of the same? Why did it need a whole redesign?

It did!

@PipinwasAuntieMabelsdog so we aren’t allowed to be proud of our family’s achievements and work now? 🙄

Not being funny, but why would it need to be bullet proof OP?

Because it’s a target and the royal family might not want to see the coffin sprayed with bullets?

I doubt the folk driving it fancy being sprayed with bullets either

Thanks for sharing the story of your DP and the hearse. You’re right to be proud - the whole world is watching the Queen travelling in this hearse. Your DP is a small part of her history - YANBU!

So no one can shoot the Queen

WTF?

Possibly because of the design of the casket. It will have been lead lined and the dimensions overall much larger than would fit well in a bog standard hearse. Extra headroom for all round visibility.

Give over cat bum face

Its a huge thing to be proud of, its a massive piece of history (and I am not a royalist at all) bit even I get that.
This will be such a highlight of the careers of the team who worked on it, designing something with the Queen and making it how she wanted.
You just sound jealous so bore off!

And I've a suggestion for where you might place your own trumpet. What a miserable object you sound.

Perplexed as to why you think it was a good idea to start a thread on this and what your husband things of it.

A lot of people, including me, wouldn't want to do business with someone whose wife posts on social media about it.

Am i the only one that finds this totally bizarre. The idea of the queen needing her own exclusive hearse seems very wasteful to me. Apparently Phillip had his own special Land Rover hearse too. Young people today are crippled with student debt and ever getting onto the property ladder is now merely a dream. All this excess is in such bad taste.

No, you are not the only one who thinks that. I don't like paying for their excess when we can't get an ambulance round here.

Really puzzled by those who think OP has done something wrong. The media has already published the fact that the conversion work was done by Wilcox Limousines in Wigan, so it is hardly a secret any more. Why shouldn't OP share how proud she is of her husband?

Sorry but I agree with this one. I mean a woman died I think it’s not in the best taste to post your proudness of your hubby being involved in her funeral car. She’s a human being for goodness sake. And if this was a secret you might want to tell your hubby you have just outed him on a global forum. His boss might not be too pleased.

No you’re not the only one.
Never occurred to me there’d have to be a one-off hearse.
But great that it’s been built in Britain by British craftspeople/ engineers. Pity they couldn’t have made it electric to reduce pollution?