Funeral of The People's Princess
The funeral
of Diana, Princess of Wales took place on Saturday, 6 September, in Westminster Abbey. It
began at 11.00 a.m. and lasted for about one hour. Before moving in Procession
to the Abbey for the service, the Princess's coffin had lain at the Chapel Royal, within
St James's Palace, until the evening before the funeral. It was then moved to the
Princess's apartment at Kensington Palace, where it remained overnight. The Bishop of
London and the Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal kept a candlelit vigil of prayer over the
Princess's coffin throughout the night. On the morning of the funeral her coffin
was borne in Procession from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey. Her brother, Earl
Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry, The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Edinburgh,
joined the Procession in The Mall and walked behind the coffin to the Abbey.
Following the service, the Princess's
coffin was taken by road to the Spencer family home at Althorp for private burial in
sanctified ground on an island in the centre of an ornamental lake. The grave faces east,
towards the rising sun. The Althorp estate was opened to members of the
public who wished to view the lake where the Princess is buried, from 1 July 1998 to 30
August 1998. Details can be found on the Althorp House Web site at http://www.althorp-house.co.uk. Books of
Condolence were opened for signing at St James's Palace and at Kensington Palace until 21
September. The Books were then offered to the Spencer family. Some 580,000 condolence
messages sent electronically in the week after the Princess's death were also offered to
the Princess's family. It was estimated that 31 million people in Britain and two
and a half billion people around the world watched the funeral on television.
