People have flocked from all over the world to see the Queen’s coffin as it makes its procession through London ahead of Monday’s funeral.
The Queen’s coffin will process through London this afternoon, and crowds have been gathering since yesterday to catch a final glimpse before she is interred.
As a global figure and representative of Britain, visitors from all corners of the earth made the journey to London to pay their respects.
Retired army cook Sam Weller, 68, from Rotherhithe, who served in Northern Ireland, said: “I cannot not be here. It’s just something I’ve got to do, for me.
“I did the guard of honour years ago when I was a young man for the Duchess of Kent who was our Colonel in Chief.
“It made me feel proud. We swear allegiance to the Queen when we sign on and take her shilling.
“She was our boss. It doesn’t matter if you’re a private or the chief of the defence staff, she is our boss. She’s always been in our lives. If it weren’t for her we wouldn’t have Great Britain.”
Vicky Anderson, 44, from Carlisle, had lost her grandmother just two weeks before the Queen’s death.
She said: “She was an ardent royalist and her whole life she’d been showing me photographs of when she came down for Charles and Diana’s wedding, she came for the Silver and Golden Jubilees, so as I’ve kind of grown up, I’ve had all this memorabilia around me, in my childhood, and losing my granny a couple of weeks ago and the Queen straight after it’s hit me quite hard to be honest.”
