Prince Harry will wear military uniform at vigil for Queen | Prince Harry
Prince Harry has received special permission from the King to wear a military uniform when attending a wake at his grandmother’s coffin.
The Duke of Sussex was stripped of his military titles after giving up his life as a working royal and moving to the United States with his wife, Meghan.
He has been in civilian dress for official events, including when he walked behind Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Wednesday when it was carried to Westminster Hall for the lying in the state. The Duke, who has served two tours in Afghanistan, will join his brother, the Prince of Wales, in wearing uniform at Westminster Hall on Saturday, ahead of Monday’s state funeral.
Prince Harry will stand at the foot of the coffin, with his brother at the head. Prince William will be accompanied by his cousins Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips, the Queen’s eldest grandson.
Harry will be with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, with Lady Louise Windsor and her brother Viscount Severn in the middle of the coffin.
The Princess Royal’s daughter Zara Tindall was close to her grandmother, sharing a love of horses and riding. The grandchildren greeted the queen with a kiss on both cheeks followed by a curtsy or a bow.
Lady Louise Windsor, 18, and her brother Viscount Severn, 14, live in Bagshot Park, Surrey, not far from the Queen’s Castle home in Windsor, and spent many hours visiting the deceased monarch. Lady Louise, who studies English at the University of St Andrews and looks a lot like the Queen as a child, is a skilled carriage driver, following in the footsteps of her grandfather Philip.
The Queen leaves 12 great-grandchildren: Savannah and Isla Phillips, Prince George of Wales (a future King), Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis of Wales, Mia, Lena and Lucas Tindall, Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor, August Brooksbank and Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.
When the Queen met her great-grandson George shortly after he was born in 2013, it was the first time in nearly 120 years that a reigning monarch had met a future king three generations in advance.
On Friday evening, the Queen’s children, King Charles, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Earl of Wessex, attended their own vigil. The King, Anne, Andrew and Edward stood around their mother’s coffin with their heads bowed as members of the public slowly filed past them.