The secrets of King Charles III’s slimmed down coronation revealed

The retired lieutenant colonel behind the arrangements for Queen Elizabeth’s witness and her funeral has spoken for the first time about the exhaustively detailed planning that took place out of public view.

Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Mather spent more than a decade drafting ‘London Bridge’, the code name given to the arrangements for the Queen’s death.

And, as he reveals today, the preparations were so meticulous that:

• A replica of Westminster Hall was built in an aircraft hangar for dry runs from the recumbent state.

• A special illuminated train carriage was prepared with glass windows allowing mourners to glimpse the coffin in case the Royal Train made the journey from Edinburgh to London, or elsewhere.

• Lieutenant Colonel Mather had to spy the layout of the royal corridors – including in Prince Philip’s Sandringham cottage – to plan the relocation of the Queen’s casket.

• The carpets laid out in Westminster Hall for the lying in the state were put to the test by a man wearing steel-heeled boots.

Lieutenant Colonel Mather worked with the Duke of Norfolk, who as Earl Marshal formally oversees coronations and royal funerals. But it was Lieutenant Colonel Mather who drew up the detailed plans for London Bridge. He led a team of 300 who met at least once a year to review and coordinate the Queen’s funeral plans with courtiers.

Lieutenant Colonel Mather, former Grenadier Guard and a member of the Royal Household for some 26 years, began writing London Bridge in 1999, when the Queen was in her 70s – although she never spoke to her directly about it. “The first draft I wrote was, I think, fifteen pages long,” he said. ‘My last one, from 2017, is about two and a half centimeters thick. If you have a plan, you need to keep it up to date. Quite a large group met once a year – at the end of January – and we had a conference, the Earl Marshal’s conference, where he took the presidency and we explained any updates to the plans.

“In recent years we have taken over the entire ballroom of Buckingham Palace. We did it all through a PowerPoint presentation. People were sworn to secrecy – they didn’t discuss it except with those people who needed to know. Seeing the Queen was very formal. The discussion of the funeral was all circumstantial – it always went through a private secretary. You would find a private secretary or lady on hold in a hallway and have a word. They tested the water temperature for me.’

Lieutenant Colonel Mather would explain his suggestions on paper to the private secretary. This, he said, “went to the queen in a red box – then you waited for an answer to come back.” Her Majesty requested changes via handwritten notes in the margin. Mather also held funeral arrangements with Charles, then Prince of Wales, at Birkhall, his home on the Balmoral estate in Scotland.

“We were very aware of what we would be doing to the King and Queen Consort. We gave them a day’s break from their public duties during the official mourning period – although even then the Red Boxes didn’t stop. So the king was still at work, even the day he spent in Highgrove. I’m told he’s taken six or eight calls from heads of state, so you know, have a good day.”

He also made sure that the ten days of official mourning were interrupted by short rests. He confirmed that the king always carries a pillow, but explained that the purpose is to support his back.

Lieutenant Colonel Mather, now 80, had played a leading role in Winston Churchill’s state funeral, where he commanded the Grenadier Guards’ Bearer Party carrying the coffin. He assisted in the ceremonies for the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Prince Philip, and says he had to write Diana’s funeral plan on a “blank sheet of paper” within 48 hours. His expertise is so profound, he even “had input into the first few drafts” of King’s Charles’ eventual burial.

Among the many eventualities Mather had planned — including the Queen’s death at sea, at Prince Philip’s remote Wood Farm cottage on the Sandringham estate, or while visiting Northern Ireland — was a plan in case she death in Scotland that would come to be known as Operation Unicorn. There was even a working arrangement if she did not die at Balmoral’s main castle, but at a small lodge on the property, where she stayed only two weeks a year, while the castle was open to the public.

‘I have been many times to investigate royal residences and the routes to take the coffin down the stairs. I almost got caught,” he recalls.

“I went to Sandringham for the same reason, to Wood Farm, where Prince Philip lived, and we went there because we knew he was gone. . . because they have a problem in that farm. The stairs are very steep. I went with the cop at that point and we turned into the driveway and he suddenly threw the car into reverse as Philip came around the corner. You would never do it if he were there – it would be insensitive.’

During the initial meetings, he said staff at Aberdeen airport had opposed the idea of ​​closing airspace and changing flight schedules in the event of the Queen’s death in Scotland. “We used to go up a lot to see Aberdeen airport. And they initially said, ‘Well, we can’t interrupt the schedule,’ and I replied that if it happens, it’ll be purple sky, so there’s going to be quite a bit of disruption.”

Glasgow police had requested that, in the event of her death in Balmoral, the Queen’s coffin would be accompanied by a motorcade of outsiders. But Mather claimed that “she’ll only have one police outrider when she’s alive — she’ll only have one in death.”

He confirmed that a special funeral car was available to carry the Queen’s coffin from Edinburgh to London. disruption of the rail network. The coffin was flown to RAF Northolt in West London.

Mather believes this carriage was on standby until the railroad option was discarded. “Every lamppost along the route should have been opened, checked for bombs and closed again,” he said. “Besides, there should be police on every bridge along the road. And other trains would have been cancelled. It was decided that this would not put Charles on the right track with the general public.’

Such disruption to the rail network could also be at odds with the prevailing national mood, fueling “anti-monarchy sentiment” at a time of national mourning.

He revealed that there had also been a rehearsal for the lying-in-state at Westminster Hall. “I was there on a Sunday morning,” he said. ‘The catafalque was hastily built, but of course of the right dimensions. The construction gave TV and radio the opportunity to see what the hall would look like and to request camera positions.’

The Queen Mother’s condition in 2002 allowed Mather to make minor improvements to London Bridge. “Then the four candles on the corners of the catafalque had to be changed every eight hours, and it looked awful – the carpet was covered in candle wax. The laundry just piled up.’

He therefore advised filling the candles with oil, which could be replaced every 24 hours. For the queen asleep, he wanted to make sure the Westminster Hall carpet wouldn’t fray underfoot. “I walked around it 100 times with steel heels and nose,” he said.

He concluded: ‘My job description didn’t exist. It included everything and I enjoyed doing it. It was an honor, a privilege and an experience.’