Buckingham Palace has made public the first image of the new tombstone that marks the last home of the Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor. The black headstone was set in the floor of the George VI Memorial Chapel, where the monarch was buried on Monday. It is engraved in memory of the Queen, her parents and her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh and replaces a previous slab dedicated to George VI and the Queen Mother. The new stone now reads “George VI 1895-1952” and “Elizabeth 1900-2002”, followed by a metal Garter star, and then “Elizabeth II 1926-2022” and “Philip 1921-2021”. All four royals were in fact members of theOrder of the Garterthe highest order of chivalry in the British system of honors which dates back to medieval times and is composed of the monarch and other high-ranking figures, including former prime ministers and former military leaders.
The newly installed stone is surrounded by floral tributes and various crowns, it is made of hand-carved Belgian black marble with brass letter inlays. The Queen, who died at the age of 96, after more than 70 years of reign, was privately buried in the George VI Memorial Chapel, in the presence of Re Carlo III and close family members, on Monday, when the late monarch joined her parents, sister and husband. The evening function followed the public elements of the day: the Queen’s state funeral in theWestminster Abbey and the switching service in Windsor.
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Visitors will be able to pay to see the Queen’s tombstone for themselves starting Thursday. In fact, the chapel will reopen that day and will be open every day, except Sunday, when it will remain available only for the faithful. Entrance to the castle costs £ 28.50 for adults on Saturdays and £ 26.50 on other days. The chapel was commissioned by the Queen in 1962 as a burial place for her father George VI and was designed by George Pace. The pale stone annex was added to the north side of the building, behind the north aisle, and was completed in 1969.
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The Queen’s sister, la Princess Margaretwho died in 2002, was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault of the St George’s Chapel, before being moved to the George VI Memorial Chapel with her parents’ coffins, when the Queen Mother died a few weeks later. The Prince Philipinstead, it was only recently moved to the chapel. When he died in April 2021, his coffin was interred in Royal Vault, ready to be transferred to the memorial chapel, to join his wife on her death. The royal family is now observing a seven-day mourning period for the Queen, which will end at the end of Monday.
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