QUEEN’S FINAL RETURN HOME

MOURNERS TO LINE THE STREETS AS ROYAL COFFIN ARRIVES AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE Sopelaja

- Robert Jobson Royal Editor and Nicholas Cecil Political Editor

THE Queen was today making her final journey home after her unprecedented 70-year reign which touched so many people in countries all around the world.

Huge crowds were expected to line the streets of London this evening to pay their respects as her coffin is driven to Buckingham Palace, the symbolic seat of the monarchy. It will rest in the Bow Room overnight before being taken to Westminster Hall tomorrow to lie in state, ahead of Monday's funeral.

Britain's longest-serving monarch was born in a townhouse belonging to her Scottish grandparents, in Bruton Street, Mayfair, on April 21, 1926. Final preparations were being made today for her lying-in-state.

Before the sun rose this morning and as the city slept, thousands of soldiers in ceremonial uniform took part in a rehearsal for the procession of her coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall. At around 4am, a black coffin was placed on a gun carriage pulled by seven black horses through Queen's Gardens, The Mall, Whitehall, Parliament Street, Parliament Square and into New Palace Yard.Ahead of the real procession tomorrow, Major General Christopher Ghika, of the Household Division and who is responsible for organising the ceremonial aspects of the funeral, said: “It’s a very sad day, but it’s our last opportunity to do our duty for the Queen and it’s our first opportunity to do it for the King, and that makes us all very proud.”