The royal family’s mourning will continue for seven days after the monarch’s funeral, Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Friday. A mourning observed by the members of the royal family, the personnel of the royal household and the representatives of the royal household on official mission, as well as the troops engaged in the ceremonies.
The flags will remain at half mast in all the royal residences until the following morning after the end of the mourning. The royal residences, open to the public such as the museums of Buckingham Palace, Balmoral, in Scotland, or Sandringham, in the east of England, will remain closed until the funeral.
These should take place ten days after the death, around September 19, at Westminster Abbey. The date “will be confirmed in due course”, it is specified. In the meantime, the public can lay flowers at royal residences across the UK. No condolence books will be opened, tributes can be left online.
As planned, the “royal gun salute” – 96 cannon shots fired, one shot for each year of the sovereign’s life – will be fired in Hyde Park, London, on Friday at 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. in Paris), a clarified the palace.