On 6 February 1952, George VI, King of the United Kingdom, died at the age of 56, at Sandringham House, after a prolonged cancer. His state funeral took place on 15 February 1952. He was succeeded by his daughter Queen Elizabeth II. George VI's coffin lay in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham, until 11 February when it was carried, in procession, to the nearby Wolferton railway station. The coffin was carried by train to London King's Cross railway station where another formal procession carried it to Westminster Hall where the king lay in state for three days. Some 304,000 people passed through Westminster Hall with queues up to 4 miles (6.4 km) forming.
George VI's funeral began with another formal procession to Paddington Station, the coffin being carried on a gun carriage hauled by Royal Navy seamen, as is traditional at the funerals of British sovereigns. The procession was accompanied by Elizabeth II, George VI's widow Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and four royal dukes: Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Prince Edward, Duke of Kent. Numerous foreign monarchs and other representatives also attended. On arrival at Paddington the coffin was loaded onto a train for the journey to Windsor. Another procession carried the coffin through the town to St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle where a service was held and the king interred in the royal vault.
The procession was the first of a British monarch to be broadcast on television and may have led to the start of a mass purchase of television sets. The king's body was relocated to the newly built King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St George's Chapel, in 1969 and was joined there by the body of his wife Queen Elizabeth, and the ashes of his daughter Princess Margaret, who died in March 2002 and February 2002 respectively. In September 2022, following the death of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, who had died in April 2021, were interred alongside them in the Chapel. There was also a change in the inscription on the ledger stone following the interment of Elizabeth and Philip.
Death
George VI had undergone a lung operation in September 1951 from which he never fully recovered. In the evening of 5 February 1952, he had a meal with his family at Sandringham House, Norfolk, and retired to bed at 10:30 pm. He died in his sleep on 6 February 1952 at the age of 56. He was discovered by his valet at 7:30 am and the news was conveyed to Buckingham Palace by telephone, using the code "Hyde Park Corner" to avoid alerting switchboard operators to the news. The news was not broken to the wider world until 11:15 am when BBC newsreader John Snagge read the words "It is with the greatest sorrow that we make the following announcement..." on the radio. The news was repeated every fifteen minutes for seven occasions, before the broadcast went silent for five hours. As a mark of respect the Great Tom bell at St Paul's Cathedral was tolled every minute for two hours, as well as the bells at Westminster Abbey. The Sebastopol Bell, a Crimean War trophy at Windsor Castle that is rung only upon a royal death, was tolled 56 times, once for each year of George VI's life, between 1:27 and 2:22 pm.
Royal funerals are overseen by the earl marshal, a hereditary post held at the time by Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk. The earl marshal has a suite of offices set aside for his use at St James's Palace in London. At the time of George VI's death these were being renovated and had to be hurriedly reopened. Scaffolding was dismantled, furniture moved in and phones, lighting and heating installed; the offices were ready by 5:00 pm.
The House of Commons met at 11:58 am to express its grief before adjourning to await the confirmation by the Accession Council of the new monarch. The council met at 5:00 pm in the Entrée Room of St James's Palace and confirmed Elizabeth II as George VI's successor. An official proclamation of the accession was made by the Garter King of Arms on the Proclamation Gallery on the palace's eastern front, preceded by trumpet blasts from musicians from the Life Guards, the event being filmed by four television cameras. From then high sheriffs repeated the proclamation at town and city halls across the country. Some 5,000 attended the proclamation in Manchester, 10,000 in Birmingham and 15,000 in Edinburgh.
A period of national mourning followed George VI's death. Rugby and hockey games were postponed, though football matches continued with the singing of the national anthem and the hymn "Abide with Me" before each game. Memorial services were held in churches of all denominations across the country and around the world, even in communist states. There was some opposition to the mourning; social researchers from Mass-Observation recorded one 60-year-old woman who asked: "Don't they think of old folk, sick people, invalids? It's been terrible for them, all this gloom." On another occasion, the organisation recorded that a fight broke out in a Notting Hill bar after one man said of the King, "He's only shit and soil now like anyone else." Other countries declaring a period of national mourning included Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India.
Journey to London
The body of George VI was dressed in a British Royal Navy uniform and placed in a coffin made from oak grown on the Sandringham estate. The coffin was laid in St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham where the king had worshipped while on the estate. On 11 February the coffin, draped in the Royal Standard on top of which his wife Queen Elizabeth had laid a wreath of flowers, was carried from the church. The coffin was placed onto a gun carriage of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery for its journey to the nearby Wolferton railway station. The coffin was followed by George VI's brother Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester and son-in-law Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on foot. The new queen, Elizabeth II, her sister Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother followed by car. The Sandringham estate staff and their families followed in procession part of the way and the public lined much of the route.
Upon arrival at the station the coffin was removed from the gun carriage by eight soldiers of the Grenadier Guards and placed into a railway carriage, the same carriage that had carried the coffin of George V (the deceased king's father) for the same journey to London. The carriage was pulled by the LNER Thompson Class B2 locomotive 61617 Ford Castle, the usual Royal Train locomotive, class-mate 61671 Royal Sovereign being unavailable. The line required a reversal at King's Lynn so the locomotive was changed for BR Standard Class 7 70000 Britannia. The cab roofs of the locomotives were painted white for the occasion, as this is traditional for locomotives of the British Royal Train. Britannia arrived at London King's Cross railway station on time at 2:45 pm.
Procession and lying in state
Before arrival in London the Imperial State Crown was placed on a cushion atop the coffin. The coffin was carried from the train by eight Grenadier Guards and placed onto a green-painted gun carriage, the same as had been used for the funeral procession of George V. Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret followed the coffin on foot to the outside of the station and then boarded a car to travel to meet Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. The King's coffin was drawn in procession to Westminster Hall where it was to lie in state. The coffin was drawn on a gun carriage by the Kings' Troop, escorted by an officer and ten men of the Grenadier Guards, preceded by mounted police. The Dukes of Gloucester and Edinburgh followed the coffin on foot, followed by members of George VI's royal household. The procession route was via Kingsway, Aldwych, Trafalgar Square and along Whitehall (where military officers in the procession saluted The Cenotaph) to Westminster Hall, part of the Palace of Westminster.
Crowds lined the route, and to create space for them to stand, the rhododendrons in Parliament Square were pulled up. The procession was broadcast on television, the first time that part of a royal funeral had this treatment, and also by radio. The BBC radio commentary by Richard Dimbleby has since received comment for its poignancy. Historian D. R. Thorpe considered that the funeral helped spark the mass purchase of television sets, usually ascribed to both the Eisenhower inauguration in Washington and Elizabeth II's coronation the following year.
The oak of Sandringham, hidden beneath the rich, golden folds of the Standard. The slow flicker of the candles touches gently the gems of the Imperial Crown, even that ruby that Henry wore at Agincourt. It touches the deep, velvet purple of the cushion, and the cool, white flowers of the only wreath that lies upon the flag. How moving can such simplicity be. How real the tears of those who pass by and see it, and come out again, as they do at this moment in unbroken stream, to the cold, dark night and a little privacy for their thoughts ... Never safer, better guarded, lay a sleeping king than this, with a golden candlelight to warm his resting place, and the muffled footsteps of his devoted subjects to keep him company ... How true tonight of George the Faithful is that single sentence spoken by an unknown man of his beloved father: 'The sunset of his death tinged the whole world's sky'
— Richard Dimbleby, BBC radio commentary of the lying in state
At Westminster Hall members of both houses of parliament were present to witness the guardsmen carry the coffin into the hall. The procession into the hall was led by the officers of arms, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (Brian Horrocks), the minister of works (David Eccles), the Earl Marshal, the Lord Great Chamberlain (James Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, 3rd Earl of Ancaster) and, immediately in front of the coffin, the Dean of Westminster (Alan Don) and the Archbishop of York (Cyril Garbett). The coffin was followed by Elizabeth II, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret (who had all travelled by car from Buckingham Palace) and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Royal. The Archbishop conducted a brief service which included the hymn "Abide with Me" at the request of the Queen. During the service, the coffin was guarded by the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms and the Yeomen of the Guard.
George VI's coffin was afterwards placed on a dais in Westminster Hall, under a vigil guard. The public were permitted to view the coffin and, at times, queued for 4 miles (6.4 km) to do so. Over the next three days some 304,000 people passed through Westminster Hall. The numbers were lower than they had been for George V, which was ascribed to the effects of the widespread television coverage. After the final day of lying in state it took a team of three jewellers two hours to clean the dust off the crown jewels which lay on the coffin, in preparation for the funeral.
Funeral
The funeral of George VI took place on 15 February at St. George's Chapel, Windsor.
Mourners, including representatives of foreign governments, were assembled outside Westminster Hall by 8:15 am. At 9:30 am George VI's coffin was carried from Westminster Hall by eight soldiers of the Grenadier Guards and placed on a gun carriage. The coffin was draped in the royal standard atop which were placed a crown, orb and sceptre as well as his wife's wreath of orchids and lilies of the valley. The coffin was placed on a gun carriage that, as per royal tradition, would be hauled by a party of sailors the 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from New Palace Yard to Paddington Station from where it would travel to Windsor by train. The procession was led by the Central Band of the Royal Air Force and the Band of the Welsh Guards.
Thereafter was a detachment of the RAF and representatives from Commonwealth forces including Northern and Southern Rhodesia, East and West Africa (King's African Rifles and Royal West African Frontier Force), Ceylon, Pakistan, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. There followed detachments from the units that George VI held the position of colonel-in-chief or honorary colonel, other British Army units, including the bands of the Coldstream Guards, the Irish Guards and the Royal Artillery. There was also a detachment of the Royal Marines (including their band). These were followed by senior foreign and British military officers, including George VI's aides-de-camp. A detachment of the Household Cavalry was followed by the Band of the Scots Guards and the massed pipes of five Scottish and Irish Regiments. Further senior military officials and members of the Royal Household preceded and escorted the coffin, flanked by the Gentleman at Arms and Yeoman of the Guard.
Behind the coffin the Royal Standard was carried by the Household Cavalry in front of the Queen's carriage, which carried Elizabeth II, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and the Princess Royal. They were followed on foot by four royal dukes: Edinburgh, Gloucester, Windsor (George VI's brother, the former King Edward VIII) and Kent (Prince Edward, grandson of George V) and senior military and royal household figures.