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.

@Alsohuman

Thanks for the link *@Sparklingbrook*. That’s made me so sad, the thought of that once beautiful and glamorous woman ending up in Slough Crem is a bit heartbreaking.

It just seems illogical that there’s room for two more coffins and a third couldn’t have been squeezed in. I wonder where monarchs after the Queen will be interred.

The lack of space is just in the little George VI chapel. It was only built to take four coffins. I think there is space in the vault in general.

Princess Margaret would have been expected to be buried at Frogmore in the royal burial ground.

I wonder if perhaps space in is reserved for sovereigns and their spouses and that’s why Margaret couldn’t have a full space?

The lead lining thing seems pointless to me. It’s not like the body is being preserved for any reason.
It seems so old fashioned and not very eco friendly.

Are bodies in these circumstances embalmed? Would they still "leak"? I'm sure it was reported within hours of Prince Philip dying that he'd already been embalmed. I have watched The Crown series 1-3 over the weekend (as I'd only started watching previously from the Diana years of series 4) - do you recall the scene where George VI's body is in the process of being embalmed and Princess Margaret goes in to see her father's body?

@Sparklingbrook

The lead lining thing seems pointless to me. It’s not like the body is being preserved for any reason. It seems so old fashioned and not very eco friendly.

I guess it’s the above ground thing because of “leakage”. Diana was buried though...

Bleurgh. I wonder if Charles will be wanting/will be allowed a greener option?

Ah - thanks, NewModel. I hadn't heard that particular bit of the news.

I watched The Crown (first 2 series) a while ago, and can't remember much detail.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 I'm an avid crown fan but missed that bit! I'll have to watch again !

I think Diana was embalmed because her body had been left in a hot hospital room and needed to be kept a fresh as possible for being since by her sisters and Prince Charles.

I guess it's not a piece of news that they'd make much of. It's a bit grim really isn't it to think of such things going on so soon after someone has died.

I would have thought that the temperature in the chapel vault would make it more likely that bodies mummify but that's possibly wrong.

I think the lead is perhaps still done because they are often moved?

George VI’s memorial chapel wasn’t completed for 17 years after his death. Philip will be moved when the Queen dies.

I assume Charles, if he takes the throne, will have some sort of chapel or tomb built so his body will be moved once it’s completed.

My dad reckoned Diana's coffin was lead lined so no-one could take an x-ray photo and see that she wasn't really inside. Yes he loves a good conspiracy theory.

I watched a video of Churchill's coffin being carried into church and there were 2 guys at the back shoving it up so it didn't slide backwards off the pallbearers shoulders. What a job.

Can someone who is C of E please explain why the coffin of HRH DoE wasn't blessed during the service? (Or did I miss it being blessed?) I'm RC and the priest normally walks around the coffin and blesses it with incense and prayers and sometimes holy water is used, sometimes as the coffin is being carried in to the church. But maybe that is because most RC funerals I have been to are funeral Masses? And maybe the blessings in this instance were done at the vigil (if there was one?)

I’ve only ever seen that at RC funerals @Releasethebreak, never at a CofE one.

@Releasethebreak

Can someone who is C of E please explain why the coffin of HRH DoE wasn't blessed during the service? (Or did I miss it being blessed?) I'm RC and the priest normally walks around the coffin and blesses it with incense and prayers and sometimes holy water is used, sometimes as the coffin is being carried in to the church. But maybe that is because most RC funerals I have been to are funeral Masses? And maybe the blessings in this instance were done at the vigil (if there was one?)

I've been to a lot of C of E funerals and I've never seen one where they bless the coffin. I guess it's more a RC tradition.

Thanks Alsohuman it was just that my sister and a friend (both RC) who I have spoken to since, said the same thing "but they didn't bless the coffin"! I haven't been to many C of E funerals though so am not familiar with the "form".

X post starrynight21 thank you!

@SunshineCake

I'd be very worried that if the Queen went soon Prince Charles wouldn't be far behind .

He's a very healthy 72, hardly ready for the grave at the moment.

Don’t think Protestant funerals involve blessing the coffin. I’m CofE.

Nope not a thing in c of e.

Diana was supposed to be buried in the family vault in the local church. Therefore a lead lines coffin was required.

At the last minute the plans were changed because of the fear of the church being swamped by sightseers. The alternative site of the island in the lake was suggested and used. By that time the lead lined coffin had already been procured so they used it anyway.

Thanks everyone. I hadn't realised before it wasn't a thing at C of E funerals.

Why do people always imagine that when one elderly person dies their spouse will follow

Because there's quite a few posters on this thread who have lost parents close together, or know relatives the same. Mine died within 10 days of each other after more than 60 years married.

My mother had a stroke 8 weeks after my father died after 61 years' marriage. She survived, but I've often thought it would have been kinder if she hadn't.

I think the lead lining is to keep rodents etc out more than anything else. Foxes etc will not try to dig it up.

I don't feel the same way sorry - ill never forget the way Diana,s boys were forced to walk behind their mother's coffin in front of the world - such a barbaric act to force on the boys at such a young age. Brutal beyond words. First they were expected to walk on their own and refused and only did it with Phillip and Charles by their sides. Charles should have manned up against his father and stopped this hideous child abuse . Barbaric act against children by a barbaric family headed by phillip. Only watched his funeral as its a historic occasion. The queen said she stayed in balmoral to "protect William and harry" the week after dianas death then made them do that in front of the world - what tosh!

My dad’s casket was lead lined. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in the U.S and British Airways wouldn’t have him on the plane to bring him home unless the casket was lead lined. This was because of leaking and contamination from him, especially during travel, even though he’d been embalmed. As we know, Prince Phillip is to be moved at a later date so it will be because of this also.
Then, we we got him home, our parish church wouldn’t allow the burial because of the lead lining. So then it had to be removed, it was understandable but it was really awful and stressful. I hadn’t heard of lead lining coffins or caskets before then.

@mermaidsariel

I think the lead lining is to keep rodents etc out more than anything else. Foxes etc will not try to dig it up.

Not too many rodents or foxes in a stone-lined vault under St George's Chapel, though. It's as a pp said royal coffins are more than usually subject to being moved around, whether that's being put on a 'shelf' inside a vault, or, like PP's placed somewhere temporarily until it's moved to an entirely different vault potentially years in the future. No one wants a coffin collapse/leakage. I have a friend whose job involves her being present at exhumations, sometimes of comparatively-recently buried people, and it can be not pleasant.