Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
British Royalty Gathers for Funeral of Princess Margaret
Aired February 15, 2002 - 10:08 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Britain's royal family is gathered at Windsor Castle for the funeral of Princess Margaret. Services for the 71-year-old sister of Queen Elizabeth II are being held on the anniversary of their father's funeral that took place 50 years ago today.
Our Richard Quest is outside the services, and he joins us with more.
Richard, hello.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello from Windsor Castle. It is now after 3:00 in Britain. The bells have stopped tolling. For the last hour, they were tolling, which told us the final preparations were underway. Now that's stopped, and we assume the service for Princess Margaret has begun.
Over the past hour, we have seen various members of the royal family. For example, the duke and duchess of Gloucester, Prince Michael and Kent arriving, along with Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, the princess and perhaps some minor royals. Then we saw the queen herself, Queen Elizabeth, drive up to St. George's Chapel and enter for the service.
The person we haven't seen, of course, is Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. At 101, she was helicoptered here yesterday from her home at Sandringham in Norfolk to be at Windsor. She made it clear that she wanted to be at the funeral of her youngest daughter, even though all the reports said that her health is frail and the queen herself had begged her mother not to come. We haven't seen whether or not the queen mother is actually in the service. But of course, a building the size of the chapel, you can see it is a fairly significant size here at Windsor. There are probably many entrances, and of course, the queen mother, perhaps because she was brought in on a wheelchair and the last thing that queen would have wanted was to have been seen being wheelchaired in. It would have had memories of Princess Margaret sitting next to here at that 101st birthday celebration.
The service is now underway. What happens from here is that after the service, the royal family will stay at Windsor. The body of Princess Margaret will be taken it a local crematorium, and then it will be interred next to the body of her father, King George VI. Coincidence, today is anniversary of the burial of her father, King George VI.
Richard Quest, CNN, reporting live from Windsor Castle.
KAGAN: Richard, before we let you go, a couple questions. I was struck by the news that Princess Margaret would be cremated. I don't remember hearing a member of the royal family member having that choice before.
QUEST: Yes. You have to go back to the 1930s to find a member of the royal family who has been cremated before. By and large, it was her decision. The reason she wanted to be cremated is, I'm afraid, dreadfully practical. There simply wasn't room in the interment chamber for many more bodies, putting it crudely and bluntly. And she wanted to be buried next to her father. Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, and the queen be will also be buried there. So the answer for Princess Margaret, at her request, was to be cremated. Her ashes at a future date will be interred.
We are just waiting to find out now whether the queen mother is actually in the service. So far, there is no word yet, we haven't heard yet, on whether she is there.
KAGAN: Also interesting how you remark there is no way she would want to be seen in public in a wheelchair. This is a woman over 100 years old, but still takes pride in walking in her high heels.
QUEST: Well, absolutely. The queen mother, whenever we have seen her, let's go back to those 101st birthday celebrations. She came out of Clarence House on two sticks. She had to be forced into the golf buggy cart to be driven around. She hates the thought of being seen to be infirm or of being ill. Now, 48 hours ago, she did have a nasty fall, she did gash her arm and had to receive treatment for that. It would have been a three-hour drive from Sandringham to Windsor Castle, so she was helicoptered.
But everybody in the royal family, from what we hear, said don't make the journey. She has made the journey. What will be interesting is whether merely being on the grounds of Windsor Castle, which incidentally is the oldest continuously occupied royal castle anywhere in the world -- so maybe just being at Windsor Castle will be enough. So hopefully, in the next hour, I will be able to come back to you and confirm one way or another whether her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the queen mother, was there.
KAGAN: We will check back with you. One thing is for sure: No matter where the queen mum is spending the day, this is a tremendously sad day for her, the funeral of her youngest daughter.
Richard Quest, thank you so much for that report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
