Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother 1900-2002: The Funeral - BURIED WITH

THE Queen Mother will lie in state for three days in the medieval setting of Westminster Hall so that the public can pay their respects.

Vast crowds are expected to queue to file past the coffin before a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey, after which she will be interred alongside her beloved husband George VI, known to the family as Bertie.

She is expected to be buried a week tomorrow in the first State funeral since the death of Mountbatten of Burma in 1979, and the biggest since Winston Churchill's in 1965. The day will declared a national day of mourning and flags will be at half-mast across Britain. The State Bell at St Paul's Cathedral will toll for an hour.

Her body will be interred with her daughter Princess Margaret's ashes in a black marble vault at the small, unfussy George VI Memorial Chapel at St George's Chapel, Windsor.

Her husband died aged 56 on February 6, 1952, and the Queen Mother's burial will end 50 years of separation. It was her desire to be reunited with the man she always said died far too early.

It is traditional that a royal funeral is held nine days after death. The Queen Mother will lie in state while the public - as well as politicians and close friends - file past her candle-lit coffin.

Only the deaths of Princess Diana, Churchill and George VI will rival the public mourning that will follow in the coming days.

Hundreds of thousands of mourners are expected to line the streets to pay their last respects. Around the country, shops and offices will close.

The funeral has been set so far ahead to allow politicians, ambassadors, foreign royals and church leaders around the world to assemble in time for the service.

Television schedules will be altered, flags will be flown at half- mast and many sporting fixtures will be postponed.

Since 1979 the Queen and the Queen Mother's staff have planned for this fateful day using the code name Tay Bridge. There have been secret rehearsals in the early hours when London's streets were deserted and meetings to plan every last detail. The plan was updated in 1989, 1995 and in April last year.

Meticulous blueprints have been worked out in meetings with the Prime Minister's office and other Whitehall departments for the last 20 years spanning the leaderships of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and now Tony Blair.

But even then there are many details that could only be worked out after her death. One source said: "We are now taking stock of the mood of the nation before committing ourselves on a number of matters."

A 40-gun salute will be fired at all saluting stations in Britain and overseas at 12 noon today. Books of condolence will be opened at St James's Palace, London, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, and Glamis Castle.

Not since the death of Princess Diana will there have been such an outpouring of grief. In common with Diana's funeral just over four years ago, there will be a service at Westminster Abbey.

This will be followed by a private burial ceremony at Windsor, attended by the Royal Family and close friends. These will inevitably include her loyal steward Billy Tallon and her private secretary Sir Alistair Aird.

The service will be the culmination of days of mourning as the Royals and the nation reflect on their loss.

The Queen Mother's body will be taken to the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor, today.

It will then be moved to the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, where Princess Diana was also taken on her death. It will remain there for about four days so that family and staff can say their farewells. Eventually, the Queen Mother's coffin, draped with her personal standard and bearing her crown and a wreath of flowers, will be moved by horse-drawn carriage to Westminster Hall.

The journey is likely to go down The Mall, into Horse Guards Road, across Horse Guard's Parade, into Whitehall, then Parliament Square and into New Palace Yard.

The male royals - led by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Gloucester and Duke of Kent - will follow the coffin on foot.

Tradition dictates that no women follow the procession. The Queen will stand alone at St Stephen's Arch at the Palace of Westminster to greet the arrival.

The Queen Mother's body will lie in state in Westminster Hall. The coffin which will be placed high on a purple-draped catafalque on the same spot where George VI lay in state in February 1952. It will be guarded round the clock by a contingent of Gentleman at Arms and Yeomen of the Guard, who will stand at each corner of her coffin.

Priests will say prayers around the clock. The Royal Family will pay their respects in private. Then friends, VIPs and politicians will visit the Abbey. Huge crowds are expected to queue to file past the coffin when the hall is opened to the public from dawn until dusk.

Over the following days heads of state and other foreign dignitaries will pay their respects.

On the day of the Queen Mother's funeral, a gun carriage will take her coffin to the service. World leaders like US President George Bush and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will attend.

Nearly all of the 52 prime ministers and presidents of the Commonwealth will be present.

There will also be ambassadors, representatives of the Queen Mother's charities, recreational interests and other groups as well as friends, family and senior politicians of all the British parties. After the service, which will be conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the hearse will travel to Windsor via Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch and along the Mall to Clarence House, on to the M4 motorway.

The arrival of the funeral cortege will be greeted with the ringing of the Sebastopol Bell, captured during the Crimean War.

The internment in the George VI Memorial Chapel will take place in the early evening.

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