Pipers to accompany Queen Mother’s coffin

The British Queen Mother's coffin will be carried to Westminster Abbey for her funeral service on Tuesday to the sound of 128…

The British Queen Mother's coffin will be carried to Westminster Abbey for her funeral service on Tuesday to the sound of 128 pipers.

Twenty-five foreign Royals will attend the service as well as 35 members of the British Royal Family, among a congregation of more than 2,000.

A procession of nine senior Royals, led by the Duke of Edinburgh, will walk behind the coffin as it is borne by a gun carriage from Westminster Hall to the accompaniment of the Massed Pipes and Drums of 13 regiments comprising 192 musicians.

Before the service the Abbey's Tenor bell will be tolled every minute for 101 minutes, echoing the years of the Queen Mother's life.

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The Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, of vintage Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters, will fly over Buckingham Palace and The Mall as the coffin is taken on its final journey from the capital to Windsor where the Queen Mother's body will be interred.

The following day the Queen's wreath to her mother of white roses and sweet peas, adorning the coffin, will be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey.

This reflects a spontaneous gesture by the Queen Mother on her wedding day at the Abbey, when she placed her bouquet on the tomb.

Pall bearers from the Irish Guards will again carry the Queen Mother's coffin, surmounted by her diamond-encrusted crown, to the same horse-drawn gun carriage which took her body to Westminster Hall for her lying-in-state.

Nine senior members of the Royal Family will walk behind the coffin to the Abbey.

The Duke of Edinburgh will be accompanied by the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, Prince William, Prince Harry, Viscount Linley and Peter Phillips, the Princess Royal's son.