The funeral of UK Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8 at the age of 96, will take place in accordance with plans codenamed Operation London Bridge, which have been prepared beforehand. The death of Her Majesty was communicated to Prime Minister Liz Truss by the Queen’s private secretary who supposedly said the phrase, "London Bridge is down." The secretary also notified the cabinet secretary and the Privy Council.
The UK Foreign Office sent the news to 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen was head of state, and to the other 38 countries of the Commonwealth.
Spring Tide
Flags at government buildings across the London city center were lowered to half-mast 10 minutes after the announcement of the Queen’s death. The PM is set to make a statement later, and a national minute’s silence will be announced. The prime minister will hold an audience with the new King, kicking off the king’s accession to the throne, or Operation Spring Tide. The King will deliver a broadcast to the nation at 6 pm local time (8 pm in Moscow).
The Accession Council will meet at 10 am (noon in Moscow) the next day to proclaim the new sovereign. The proclamation will be read at St. James’s Palace and the Royal Exchange in London. Parliament will convene to agree on a message of condolence. All parliamentary business will be suspended for 10 days.
The second day after the death the Queen’s coffin will return to Buckingham Palace. Her body will be carried from Balmoral, Scotland to London by royal train as part of Operation Unicorn, if possible. If not, Operation Overstudy will kick in and her body will be flown back to London. If she had died at Windsor, which had been her main place of residence since the pandemic started in 2020, she would have been transported to London by an official convoy of cars.
Mourning tour
On day 3, the new King will receive the motion of condolence from the UK parliament at Westminster Hall. He will then embark on a mourning tour of the United Kingdom, starting with Scotland. He will receive a motion of condolence at the Scottish parliament and will attend a service at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
The next day the King will arrive in Northern Ireland, where he will receive another motion of condolence at Hillsborough Castle and attend a service at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast. A rehearsal will take place the same day for Operation Lion: the procession of Her Majesty’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster. The operation will take place on the sixth day after the sovereign’s death. When the Queen’s coffin arrives at the Palace of Westminster, there will be a memorial service in Westminster Hall.
Next will be Operation Feather: The Queen will lie in state at the Palace of Westminster for 3 days. The coffin will lie on a catafalque open to the public. VIPs will be given a time slot to visit. A rehearsal for the state funeral procession will take place.
On day seven after the Queen’s death, the new King will travel to Wales, to receive a motion from the Welsh parliament and attend a service at Liandaff Cathedral in Cardiff. Condolence books will be opened online over the next two days.
Funeral
Day 10 will be proclaimed a Day of National Mourning. The State Funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey. There will be 2 minutes’ silence at midday across the whole country. There will be 2 processions, in London and Windsor. Her Majesty will be laid to rest at Windsor Castle, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
The period of mourning will last one month. The Queen’s portrait will hang with a black ribbon in all town halls before being switched with a portrait of the new King. All flowers laid in and around Royal palaces and public town halls will be removed following the state funeral.