A Sad Farewell To A Regal Pro

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It was a week of somber pomp and ceremony: of solemn procession and visibly saddened royals; of effusive speeches from black-suited parliamentarians and flowery messsages from the public on cellophane-wrapped bouquets; of long lines filing past the coffin lying in state in the magnificent medieval Westminster Hall. Britain dedicated last week to paying its respects to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother before the final farewell of her funeral in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday.

The overwhelming tone in all the tributes was genuine affection and respect, sentiments the Queen Mum, who died peace-fully in her sleep the previous Saturday at age 101, had invariably evoked during her lifetime. Even though she gave only one interview in the span of a century and never publicly revealed a political opinion or, indeed, very much about herself, Britons felt close to her. With her own brand of happy charm, the Queen Mother, like Princess Diana, had the common touch.

Prime Minister Tony Blair told a packed House of Commons especially recalled from its Easter break that the Queen Mother had been a "unifying figure" for the nation. "There is nothing false or complicated about the public response to her death," said Blair. "It's the simplest of equations. She loved her country and her country loved her." His words were borne out by Lara Denyer, a smart-suited office worker in her mid-30s who, during her lunch hour last week, quietly placed an anonymous bunch of white lilies among the other bouquets outside Clarence House, the Queen Mother's London home. "She was a great lady, someone to look up to," said Denyer. "She stood for what England is all about — she'll be sadly missed."

Not all agreed. An article in the left-leaning Guardian suggested that there was more ambivalence toward the event than generally acknowledged and said that if traditionalists mourned the death of a lady who embodied a long-gone Gosford Park era, young Britons felt far less emotional attachment to royalty and progressive folk did not miss those deference-filled times at all. An editorial in the newspaper meanwhile claimed the nation had created an "idealized image" of the Queen Mother, who after all had lived "a life of anachronistic extravagance" — and enjoyed her tipple of gin.

An almost hysterical uproar blew up over the BBC's coverage of the royal death. The trigger was BBC newscaster Peter Sissons, who did not switch his maroon tie to the traditional black tie of mourning as did presenters on the independent channels in those first hours of the royal death coverage. There were other charges, led by the right-wing Daily Mail, of insensitive BBC interviewing and claims that Prince Charles had been angry enough to give the rival ITV channel an interview about his grandmother rather than the BBC. It turned out, however, that the interview had been allotted purely on the basis of a rotation system, and that the film was pooled and available to all. Just the same, said Robert Worcester, chairman of the MORI polling organization, "a big chunk of the British public believes the BBC has let the side down."

The row even overshadowed the quiet journey last Tuesday of the Queen Mother's coffin from Windsor to St. James's Palace near Clarence House, where it remained for three days for the royal family's private mourning. By Friday, however, the BBC furor was almost forgotten, eclipsed by the ceremonial spectacle of the 29-minute procession that escorted the coffin to its lying-in-state at Westminster Hall, a part of the Houses of Parliament. As black-tied, black-suited TV presenters on every channel pointed out, it was a splendid event, the biggest display of pageantry since Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965. Draped in the Queen Mother's standard, topped by her diamond-encrusted crown and a single wreath of white roses and freesias from her daughter bearing the simple message, "In loving memory, Lilibet," the coffin was borne through crowd-lined streets on a gun carriage. Behind it walked 14 members of the royal family, including Princes William and Harry and, breaking the all-male precedent, Princess Anne. Inside the hall, the coffin was placed on a catafalque, where it remained for three days to allow thousands to file past. Prince Charles last week described the Queen Mother as "the original life enhancer." She was all of that, and such a long-lived and joyful fixture in Britain's recent history that the Queen Mum deserved the finest goodbye. And got it.