Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor on the evening of September 19th 2022.
The tombstone was placed on the grave soon afterwards.
The simplest of markers was chosen for the longest reigning Monarch in British history.
Her Late Majesty lies beneath a slab engraved with ‘Elizabeth II” and her dates, ‘1926 – 2022’. The stone also includes the permanent memorials for her husband, father and mother who she is buried alongside.
The stone shows ‘George VI, 1895 – 1952’, ‘Elizabeth, 1900 – 2002’, ‘Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022’ and ‘Philip, 1921 – 2021’.
(By VCR Giulio19 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wiki Commons)
The tombstone is new, replacing the one that had been put into the Chapel in 2002 following the burial of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother.
Also buried in the tiny chapel are the ashes of Princess Margaret, the only sister of Queen Elizabeth II. There is a separate gravestone for Her Late Royal Highness.
The chapel also contains an engraving of lines from the poem, The Gate of the Year, which King George VI quoted in his Christmas message in 1939 as Britain was at war. The most famous words of the poem are featured on the wrought iron gates that separate the chapel from the main part of St. George’s Chapel. They read ‘I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year ‘Give me light that I may tread safely into the unknown”.
Prince Philip was laid to rest alongside Queen Elizabeth II in the same family service on September 19th 2022. His coffin had rested in the Royal Vault at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor since his funeral in April 2021. The couple, who were married for 73 years, had always intended to be buried together and had agreed that whoever passed away first would ”wait” for the other so that their final resting place would be side by side.
Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8th 2022 at Balmoral. She was 96 and had reigned for 70 years.
