Queen reunited with Philip in tiny King George VI Memorial Chapel
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The Queen has been reunited with her beloved husband the Duke of Edinburgh, interred alongside him in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.
The King and the royal family gathered for a private burial service on Monday in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, following the Queen’s state funeral and committal service.
The tiny King George VI Memorial Chapel houses the remains of the Queen’s father George VI, her mother the Queen Mother and sister Princess Margaret.
When Philip died 17 months ago, his coffin was interred in the Royal Vault of St George’s – ready to be moved to the memorial chapel when the Queen died.
A statement on the royal family’s official website said: “The Queen was buried together with The Duke of Edinburgh, at The King George VI Memorial Chapel.”
The statement said the burial service, which took place at 7.30pm, was conducted by the Dean of Windsor.
A senior palace official had said previously that the service and burial would be “entirely private, given it is a deeply personal family occasion”.
The central feature of the pale stone memorial chapel annexe, which was added on to the north side of St George’s behind the North Quire Aisle in 1969, is a black stone slab set into the floor.
It is inscribed with “George VI” and “Elizabeth” in gold lettering and accompanied by their years of birth and death.
Princess Margaret, who died in 2002, was cremated and her ashes were initially placed in the Royal Vault, before being moved to the George VI memorial chapel with her parents’ coffins when the Queen Mother died weeks later.
The princess wanted to be cremated because she found the alternative royal burial ground at Frogmore in Windsor Great Park too “gloomy”.
Lady Glenconner, a lifelong friend of the princess, said in 2002 that the princess preferred the memorial chapel.
“She told me that she found Frogmore very gloomy,” Lady Glenconner said. “I think she’d like to be with the late king, which she will now be. There’s room I think for her to be with him now.”
George VI died in 1952, but was first interred in the Royal Vault and moved to the memorial chapel when it was built 17 years later.
