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CNN Live At Daybreak
Royals and Dignitaries From Around World Gathering for Funeral of Queen Mother
Aired April 09, 2002 - 05:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And now we want to go live to London. Royals and dignitaries from around the world are gathering for the funeral of Britain's Queen Mother. The service begins in just over an hour.
Our Christiane Amanpour is covering this event -- good morning, Christiane.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.
It is another beautiful London morning. We've had fantastic weather for many, many days now and that may be one reason why so many thousands of British people have come out to pay their last respects and tributes to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, as her formal title was.
This is not a nation that has been plunged into uncontrollable grief, but it is one who remembers this Queen Mother as a symbol of national morale, a symbol of national history here, and they recognize that her life spanned the entire 20th century and this really is, in more ways than one, the end of an era.
At Westminster Hall behind me, the Queen Mother's coffin is still there. It is being prepared for the short journey that will get under way fairly soon by gun carriage from Westminster Hall, where it's been lying in state for the last three or four days, and it will go into Westminster Abbey, where the funeral service will take place.
Yesterday, as I say, this coffin has been lying in state for several days, yesterday it was the turn of her four grandsons to stand vigil at each corner of the caterwaul (ph). There were Queen Elizabeth's three children, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, also, Princess Margaret's son by Count Lindley.
They all stood around the four corners facing outwards towards the crowds, because many, many ordinary British people came, as well, to trail around the caterwaul, to look, to pay their respects, and that's been going on for many days now. There has been long, long cues that have come out over the last few days, hours of people just waiting in mile long cues. And it's really been sort of surprising.
We turn now to Robert Jobson, who is our royal commentator, surprising because at the beginning the British press was full of sort of questions as to why people hadn't come out the day she died. But it's sort of inevitable that it's now that they're coming out, isn't it?
ROBERT JOBSON, ROYALTY COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. There were comparisons to Diana and everyone says it's not going to be the same. But clearly there's been a massive response and I think the queen was provoked to actually make that speech because she was amazed by the amount of people that turned out.
AMANPOUR: The queen last night, of course, went on television here in England and thanked the British people and people around all the British Isles who had come out to pay respects to her mother.
What do you think is the overwhelming and the underlying emotion that the British people are feeling today?
JOBSON: Well, you must remember, there was a sense of inevitably about this. The lady was 101 years old. But it's really casting back, as you said, to another era and summing up the sense of spirit that we had during WWII. And I think a lot of people are remembering that. And I think the Battle of Briton fly pass that will happen down the maw as the hearse drives off to Windsor will sum that up poignantly.
AMANPOUR: And that will be quite dramatic. And for our American audience, I just want to remind them that the Queen Mother and King George VI did a North American tour back just on the eve of WWII and they're credited with sort of introducing to the Americans at that time, who were sort of isolationist, who didn't want any to do with another European conflict, as sort of bringing the two nations closer together.
JOBSON: Well, they were certainly a bridge. I think there was a sense that the Queen Mother particularly did an awful lot of good in terms of bringing the two nations together. And I think also, for the British people, she was really a rallying point during that conflict and is credited with an awful lot of respect as a result of that.
AMANPOUR: And, in fact, I think we should mention that perhaps the Queen Mother is best remembered and her most dramatic role for the British people was when she was that young queen who really boosted national morale during WWII, every day going out to the parts of the East End, the working class area of London which was bombed night after night during the blitz, and showing solidarity and comfort, refusing to leave London.
She became a beloved figure, didn't she?
JOBSON: Well, absolutely. There was talk that the royal family would be sent off to Canada. But she absolutely point blank refused that to happen and it was, indeed, she who said, when Buckingham Palace was bombed, that she can now look at East End in the eye because they had been bombed during the blitz.
So I think yes, a lot of people remember that. AMANPOUR: All right, Robert, and we'll be back with you throughout the morning as our live and extended coverage of the funeral procession and the funeral service gets under way.
Right now, the tenor bell in Westminster Abbey is chiming 101 minutes for the Queen Mother's age when she died.
We'll be back after this -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Thanks, Christiane.
First Lady Laura Bush is going to be at the funeral today, too, right?
AMANPOUR: I think that's absolutely correct.
COSTELLO: OK, we'll get back to you a little later.
Thank you.
Christiane Amanpour reporting live for us from London this morning.
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