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What You Need To Know About Royal Funerals

Published

3 years ago

September 19, 2022

Funerals for senior royals since World War II have tended to be very public affairs, with pomp, pageantry and popular fervour.

Queen Elizabeth II’s on Monday will be no exception.

– 1952: King George VI –

On February 6, 1952, King George VI died suddenly after a long illness at the age of 56.

At his funeral on February 15, his coffin was carried to Paddington station in west London on a gun carriage from Westminster Hall at the Palace of Westminster, where he lay in state, to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

A silent crowd lined the route along London’s foggy streets during the three-hour procession. His eldest daughter, who at the age of 25 had become Queen Elizabeth II, followed in a horse-drawn coach.

A year later on March 24, George’s mother, the dowager Queen Mary, died aged 85. Over two days, 120,000 people paid homage at Westminster.

– 1979: Lord Mountbatten –

On August 27, 1979, Louis Mountbatten, the queen’s cousin and last viceroy of India, was killed at the age of 79, by an Irish Republican Army bomb placed on his boat.

The assassination rocked the United Kingdom. Mountbatten was a decorated naval commander, uncle of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, and mentor of the couple’s eldest son and heir, Prince Charles.

On September 5, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in London along with representatives of the British armed forces, US Marines, and French, Canadian, Indian and Burmese soldiers to pay him a solemn farewell.

An escort of six tanks took the coffin from Westminster Abbey to Waterloo station where it was transported to Romsey, near Southampton, southern England, for burial at the town’s abbey.

– 1997: Princess Diana –

On September 6, 1997, the country came to a standstill for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in Paris on August 31 in a car crash aged 36.

Her death sent shockwaves around the world. Millions of people lined the streets and an estimated 2.5 billion viewers watched the service on television.

When the procession passed Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II, who had been criticised for her stand-offish initial reaction to the death of the former wife of Prince Charles, publicly bowed her head.

The couple’s two young sons, princes William and Harry, walked, heads bowed, behind their mother’s coffin. Diana was buried at Althorp, her family’s historic home in Northamptonshire, on an island in the middle of a lake.

Led by Queen Elizabeth II’s frail 101-year-old mother, also called Elizabeth, the royal family on February 15, 2002, laid to rest the monarch’s younger sister Princess Margaret, who had died six days earlier aged 71 after a series of strokes.

The private funeral was attended by about 450 family and friends, including 30 or so members of the royal family such as the queen, Margaret’s ex-husband Lord Snowdon, and her two children Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto.

Despite concerns over her own health, the Queen Mother attended the service at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.

It was exactly 50 years since she had buried her husband, King George VI. In a break with royal tradition, Margaret was cremated.

– 2002: The Queen Mother –

Just seven weeks after Margaret, the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, died in her sleep on March 30 at Windsor. Her funeral on April 9 marked the end of an era.

The royal matriarch was the last empress consort of India and a link to a bygone age. She was much loved as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi enemy during World War II.

Over four days, more than 200,000 people filed past her coffin paying their respects. Her funeral at Westminster Abbey was attended by 2,000 people.

More than a million people lined the 37-kilometre (23-mile) route taken by the funeral procession to Windsor, where she was interred with her husband at the King George VI memorial chapel, and alongside Margaret’s ashes.

– 2021: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh –

Queen Elizabeth II’s husband of 73 years died on April 9, 2021, just a few months shy of his 100th birthday and after a lengthy stay in hospital for a heart condition.

Coronavirus restrictions limited his funeral on April 18 to just 30 people, with social distancing, face masks — and no public crowds.

The duke’s coffin was borne to St George’s Chapel on a specially adapted Land Rover he had designed himself.

His remains were interred in the Royal Vault at Windsor, with instructions to be transferred on his wife’s death to the King George VI memorial chapel.

AFP

Headline

Christian Genocide’: Trump Designates Nigeria As Country Of Particular Concern

Published

21 hours ago

October 31, 2025

Editor

United States President, Donald Trump, has named Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” citing what he described as a growing threat to Christianity in the nation.

In a statement on Truth Social on Friday, Trump claimed thousands of Christians have been killed by radical Islamist groups and urged U.S. lawmakers to investigate the situation urgently.

Trump maintained that the United States would not stand by while Christians in Nigeria and other parts of the world face persecution, adding that America remains ready to protect Christian populations globally.

He said, “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it.

“When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.

“The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”

His declaration follows increasing criticism from U.S. politicians and public figures who claim that Christians in Nigeria are facing systematic violence.

Recently, US comedian and HBO host Bill Maher accused Islamist groups of carrying out a genocide against Christians in the country.

“I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over a hundred thousand since 2009. They’ve burnt 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza.

“They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country,” Maher said.

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Similarly, US Senator Ted Cruz claimed that Nigerian government officials were “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.”

Cruz also lamented that Christians in the country were being targeted for their faith by terrorist groups and “are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria.”

He said it was “long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities,” adding that he had introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act to the US Senate to sanction such officials.

In the same vein, Riley Moore, who represents West Virginia’s 2nd District in the US Congress, wrote to the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, urging him to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

Moore also called for a suspension of arms sales and technical support to Nigeria until the government demonstrates commitment to ending what he described as “a reign of persecution and slaughter against Christians.”

However, both the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Nigerian Presidency have dismissed the allegations of a Christian genocide.

While CAN described the reports as false narratives peddled by foreign agents, the Presidency insisted that there is no religious war taking place in the country.

Headline

Trump Breaks Silence On ‘Christian Genocide’ In Nigeria

Published

21 hours ago

October 31, 2025

Editor

In a stark rebuke to months of escalating violence, President Donald Trump has declared Nigeria a “country of particular concern” over what he described as an “existential threat” to Christianity, accusing radical Islamists of orchestrating a mass slaughter of believers in the West African nation.

The announcement, posted on Truth Social on Friday, marks the administration’s most direct intervention yet in a crisis that has claimed thousands of lives this year alone, reigniting debates over US policy toward religious persecution abroad.

Full statement below;

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it.

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Tanzania Protesters Loot Singer Juma Jux Fashion Store

Published

1 day ago

October 31, 2025

Editor

Tanzanian protesters have reportedly looted singer Juma Jux’s fashion store.

Unrest erupted on Thursday after a disputed general election marked by disqualification and detention of the key opposition figures in Tanzania.

The protesters are demanding cancellation of the election results, alleging irregularities in the country’s presidential election.

Amid the development, a controversial post by an X user Bolaji Fesomade alleged that the singer store valued at $780 million has been set ablaze by protesters.

Reacting to the report, Juma Jux’s wife, Priscilla Ojo on her Snapchat account, dismissed the claims, noting that the store was looted and not burnt.

She simply wrote; “Looted not Burnt”.