HRH The Prince Philip Funeral

[IamnotH]

Watching on BBC 1. Wish Huw would shut up and let us listen to the bands/watch them March.

The piper is Peter Grant, from Ballater. Pipe Major of The Highlanders - 4 Scots Pipes and Drums.

Ballater is a burgh (though I think of it as a town, and I've never heard it called a village) about 7 miles from Balmoral.

@leavingtime

I was very moved by the whole funeral, moved to tears by 'I Vow to thee my country', then the bell tolling and to see the emotions on the faces of the family members. To see the Queen so small, and alone was heart breaking. The lone piper finished me off.

The small congregation made it so personal, the military precision of the whole ceremony was exemplary and makes me proud of this country. Prince Philip was an extraordinary man in many ways and a real character. His send off was amazing, poignant, dignified and very well thought out. This day will stay with me for a long time.

You've said what I wanted to say so beautifully.

'I Vow to Thee My Country' always makes me cry.

The horses and carriage with his hat, gloves, whip and the sugar cubes was such a deeply personal and poignant tribute.

I found it all extremely dignified, powerful and very moving.

@QueenOfTheDoubleWide

I haven't seen the Palace staff, must have missed that. Could anyone link to a picture please?

Here you go.

For those asking what the bugle music after the Last Post was, I believe it was the naval battle cry Action Stations.

I was surprised to see someone describe the service as cold and impersonal.

I thought it had some very personal touches that were quite lovely.

The palace staff are truly amazing..100% dedicated to the RF and are respected by the RF !

Is anyone able to explain why the Queens face mask was edged in white whilst all the others that I have seen were plain black? I feel that there was a significance to this and I’d be interested to know what it was.

Abzs Thank you.

lollipoprainbow

I'm still upset and it's the early hours if Sunday . Such an incredible, beautiful service. I've cried on and on off all evening. What is it about the sugarlump pot, something so completely ordinary 😪

Apparently though people can access the vault and sit with the coffins . ( obviously family not the public)
How very Game of Thrones. I wonder how many generations of ancestors are down there. Must be odd, most of us won’t know where our great-great-grandparents are buried (or possibly even who they were...!) but I guess when your X-times-great-gran is Queen Victoria everything is a little different.

Still feel emotional about it all now anyone else or am I being soppy?!
No not just you @lollipoprainbow I got a nasty tension headache from it all and still feel restless/exhausted now unable to sleep after the emotion. It was a national historical event, mixed up with empathising with a publicly grieving family at a time when we are all struggling with the restrictions on our lives. For me it bought it home how vulnerable my 90-year old grandmother is and I haven’t been able to see her since Christmas 2019. We will all have our own individual issues that this will stir in us as well as empathy affecting us directly as well.

I hope the family’s private time afterwards was full of sharing memories and telling stories, my nana and great aunts funerals were lovely like that, family getting together and celebrating their lives. I hope the Queen feels loved and supported.

@Rainbowqueeen - Prince Charles wore one edged with white as well but different from the one the Queen was wearing. They were all wearing different ones i think, no idea if there was any meaning behind it. I'm sure Huw would have told the nation in great detail if there was.

I though it was beautiful, I Vow To Thee My Country had me in tears.

@CokeDrinker

I thought it was a very, very cold service. No speeches, nothing. Just some singing of hymns. Very cold. Hardly respectful of him IMO. I know, people will come on here and say it's 'traditional' etc but it was extraordinarily cold and impersonal. Quite horrid. It was like he didn't exist as a person. I cannot imagine a funeral more ghastly or cold. One would be forgiven for thinking it was a funeral for a once living human being.

Prince Phillip planned it like that though...

He specifically didn't want a eulogy. That makes it perhaps seem a bit less "personal, " but that's what he wanted.

Camilla passed DH going west on the M4 around 5pm, so she obviously didn't hang around king after the funeral.

I am not a lover of The Royals. But I said I wouldn't watch it but I watched some of it. I did feel sorry for Harry, He seemed to be made an outcast, I think his wife* has a lot to answer for really,

I found a list somewhere the other day about who else was in the vault grave/ It said Henry viii was in there.

@SecondLifeGamer

I am not a lover of The Royals. But I said I wouldn't watch it but I watched some of it. I did feel sorry for Harry, He seemed to be made an outcast, I think his wife* has a lot to answer for really,

He wasn’t treated any different to Peter Philips, the Earl of Snowdon, the Duke of Kent, Duke of Gloucester, Princess Alexandra or countess of Mountbatten - they were all sat alone as well

And Harry was chatting with William and Kate on the walk back. He didn't look outcast to me.

I'm not a lover of the RF either, but the picture of the Queen sitting alone was just heartbreaking

@Budsey

sooo moving I teared up when I saw the land rover what a wonderful and cheeky thing to arrange I bet ol Philip had a few arguments over that with the old guard I'm so glad he had his way....and the carriage with his gloves,cap and jar just so poignant very very personalised ....the pall bearers were fantastic ! I was soo scared when they had to go up the steps jeez how nerve racking ! and all the military.... really done Prince Philip proud... and the lone bag piper sooo beautifull... really reminded me of my dad's passing such loss and grief ....and the poor Queen wow she looked so fragile and alone, so good to see Harry and William and kate walking and talking together afterwards just like the old days maybe this will help heal the family ?.....all blessings to them just a thought what a pity we didn't know so much about the skills that Phillip had we knew about the Duke of Edinburgh award but not much else ,his interest in engineering , his role in the building of the chapel and the stained glass window , and his interest in debating the theology/belief systems of religion to name a few.. it just makes him human ...as opposed to the man who was always reported as making verbal gaffs with the press lurking to ridicule him at any time ...and to be perceived as some one who wasn't overly intelligent or caring ..clearly not the case.... what a shame that he had to pass on before we knew these things about him .....

This is exactly what I thought. Why didn't we know any of this until after he died? Plenty of criticism of him over the years and not much else. I had no idea that he was so involved in the WWF and had such a huge love of Animals etc. The British press have got a lot to answer for.

It wasn't impersonal at all. It was chosen by him and it all related to his life. You just have to know the meanings behind the choices.

There was so much nature in the service: in the verses chosen, in the psalm, in the other hymns.

I thought the reading from Ecclesiasticus was really breathtakingly lovely. And very unexpected.

"He scatters the snow-flakes like birds alighting; they settle like a swarm of locusts. The eye is dazzled by their beautiful whiteness, and as they fall the mind is entranced. He spreads frost on the earth like salt, and icicles form like pointed stakes." Just gorgeous.

Psalm 104, which I believe was originally set in that arrangement for the Duke's 75th, was also beautiful.

And especially lovely were all the references to the sea. The Marines at the end with their bugles. "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" is of course the naval hymn, but it's also set to the tune "Melita," which is an old name for Malta--which was dear to his heart. And again, that reading: "Those who sail the sea tell stories of its dangers, which astonish all who hear them; in it are strange and wonderful creatures, all kinds of living things and huge sea-monsters."

Nods to his heritage (like the Russian Kontakion of the Departed, speaking to both his Orthodox birth and to his ancestors) were beautiful and quiet. And the ending with the pipes was haunting.

I wasn't expecting to be so moved. It was centuries and centuries of meaning and symbol, and it was all so specific but unfussy.

I did think that Prince Charles would need the most comforting afterwards, he was very visibly distressed.

The music was haunting and beautiful.

I gave a eulogy at both my brother’s and mother’s funerals.

I would not have dreamt of doing something so intensely personal and emotional were the service being watched by millions with cameras in my face.

It’s incredible to me that anyone finds it cold. It’s a royal funeral, people aren’t going to be wearing the deceased’s favourite colour and letting off balloons at the end. And if you can’t imagine why family members didn’t stand and share private personal recollections at this public event......goodness me you need to work on developing some empathy.

It was a beautiful, poignant, moving, personal ceremony.
The military were superb.
I loved the deeply personal touches.
And I felt enormously for the family, especially the Queen.
But bravo, Prince Philip, you’d have been proud of what your plans delivered.

@Nancydrawn

It wasn't impersonal at all. It was chosen by him and it all related to his life. You just have to know the meanings behind the choices.

There was so much nature in the service: in the verses chosen, in the psalm, in the other hymns.

I thought the reading from Ecclesiasticus was really breathtakingly lovely. And very unexpected.

"He scatters the snow-flakes like birds alighting; they settle like a swarm of locusts. The eye is dazzled by their beautiful whiteness, and as they fall the mind is entranced. He spreads frost on the earth like salt, and icicles form like pointed stakes." Just gorgeous.

Psalm 104, which I believe was originally set in that arrangement for the Duke's 75th, was also beautiful.

And especially lovely were all the references to the sea. The Marines at the end with their bugles. "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" is of course the naval hymn, but it's also set to the tune "Melita," which is an old name for Malta--which was dear to his heart. And again, that reading: "Those who sail the sea tell stories of its dangers, which astonish all who hear them; in it are strange and wonderful creatures, all kinds of living things and huge sea-monsters."

Nods to his heritage (like the Russian Kontakion of the Departed, speaking to both his Orthodox birth and to his ancestors) were beautiful and quiet. And the ending with the pipes was haunting.

I wasn't expecting to be so moved. It was centuries and centuries of meaning and symbol, and it was all so specific but unfussy.

Yes, Psalm 107 is lovely:

“Those who go down to the sea in ships,
who do business on great waters,
they see the works of the Lord,
and His wonders in the deep.
For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
which lifts up the waves of the sea.
They mount up to the heavens,
they go down again to the depths;
their soul melts because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wits' end.
Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
and He brings them out of their distresses.
He calms the storm, so that its waves are still.”

– Psalm 107:23-29