Details Laid Out For Queen's Funeral

The state funeral for Queen Elizabeth the second is being held at Westminster Abbey on Monday 19th September at 11 am. It has been decided that this day will be a bank holiday to ensure that as many people as possible will be able to see the service when it is broadcast on BBC Television. It will also be relayed and broadcast live on BBC iplayer so people don't have to worry if they are not near a television at the time of the service, they will be able to watch it online on their laptops or smartphones.

The Abbey is a historic church where Britain's kings and queens have been crowned throughout history. This includes the queen's very own coronation in 1953 and is also the place where she married Prince Phillip in 1947.

The funeral of a king or queen hasn't been arranged at the Abbey since the eighteenth century, although the funeral for the Queen Mother was held there in 2002. A vast number of different heads of state from around the world will be flying in to join the Royal Family and pay their last respects to the queen. This will include senior UK politicians and former prime ministers.

During the time before the ceremony, the queens coffin has been taken to different locations around the country in which it has lay in state overnight so that the public can visit, file past the coffin and pay their last respects. This includes spending time at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and in the UK parliament.

There have been large queues of people waiting to enter the different buildings to walk beside the coffin and pay their last respects. Many of these people will have never met the queen before but will have wanted to attend because they knew the kind of person the queen was and what work she had been doing.

During it's time travelling round the country, there have been many gun salutes which act as a mark of respect and rememberence for the late queen. She will be remembered by many people round the country, Commonwealth and world so it helps to have something that can bring people together during times of great sadness and loss to enable people to cope with their grief in different ways.

A plan had been put in place which listed the appropriate actions to take in case the queen died. As the queen as been on the throne for seventy years, there has been time to rehearse these actions over and over again to ensure that everything was got right and there weren't any major hiccups.

Operation London Bridge reveal plans for the prime minister and his Cabinet to meet the queen’s coffin at St. Pancras station, and for the new King Charles to embark on a tour of the U.K. in the days before the funeral.

The details of the schedule for the 10 days between the queen’s death and her funeral range from the banal to the ridiculous. In one document, Downing Street raises concerns it would face a wave of public anger if it cannot lower its flags to half-mast within 10 minutes of activation and may have to rely on an external contractor. In another, it’s decided retweets will be banned across Whitehall departments unless cleared by the government’s communications chief.

In the hours after the queen’s death, a “call cascade” will take place informing the prime minister, the cabinet secretary (Britain’s highest-ranking civil servant) and a number of the most senior ministers and officials. The PM will be informed by the queen’s private secretary, who will also tell the Privy Council Office, which coordinates government work on behalf of the monarch.