The Queen’s Funeral Sets Off the Biggest UK Police Operation-one of the grandest ceremonial events in living memory

A procession involving the military, the Royal Family and those who have dedicated their lives to service of the Queen, gave the late monarch a final farewell full of pomp and pageantry ahead of her burial in Windsor.

Military personnel from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth marched through London while others lined the route, providing guards of honor and undertaking other ceremonial duties.

The Queen, who was head of the armed forces and served as their commander-in-chief, had a close and great personal relationship with the military and they will accompany her coffin again when it reaches Windsor Castle – its final resting place.

The first, and shortest, of the processions on Monday carried her coffin to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service. The second took her from the Abbey to Wellington Arch, where the coffin was transferred to the State Hearse for the road journey to Windsor. Once in Windsor, her coffin will join a third procession to St George’s Chapel in the castle’s grounds.

But the main focus was the journey through central London. The cortege, led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, was made up of seven groups, each with its own band. Members of the armed services from the UK and the Commonwealth, the police and the NHS were also involved.

The Queen’s coffin, topped with the Royal Standard, the Imperial State Crown and the Sovereign’s orb and scepter, was at the center of the procession carried on the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy. The carriage was last seen in 1979 for the funeral of Prince Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten, and was used for the Queen’s father, George VI, in 1952.

She was accompanied by the bearer party of the Grenadier Guards, the King’s Body Guards of the Honorable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, the Yeomen of the Guard and the Royal Company of Archers.

The forces who guarded the Queen’s coffin at Westminster Abbey include:

Representatives of Royal Navy

Representative detachment of Common Wealth

Representatives of the Army