Britain is poised to come to a standstill on Monday for the Queen’s state funeral.
The UK’s biggest-ever TV audience is expected to tune in to the solemn service at Westminster Abbey as the great and the good pay their final respects.
Rubbing shoulders with the 500 politicians past and present and international royals will be 200 everyday people. Many of whom, such as Dr Erin Thompson, 36, never expected an invitation and feel hugely honoured to be part of what will be an historic occasion.
Clinical psychologist Dr Thompson said: “It’s still sinking in.”
In 2008, following her father’s death, she launched a bereavement charity which expanded into The Loss Foundation.
She received an MBE in this year’s Queen’s birthday honours.
Dr Thompson said: “Grief is not something we do well in this country. What we do is create spaces where people who have gone through something similar can come together.”
And she had advice for King Charles and the Royal Family. She said: “Grief is both universal and personal. There’s some beauty in joining with the nation, but they must also find their own space to grieve privately. People who grieve get a lot of support in the immediate weeks after someone has died.
“Yet after a few weeks that drifts away and yet that’s when support is most important. The Royal Family must give themselves full permission to get that support despite all the public duties they must perform.
“Charles is going to be a very busy man but grief does not go anywhere just because you’re busy.”
RNLI lifeboat man Guy Addington, 45, of Margate, Kent, who has saved 13 people from drowning, said he feels privileged and lucky to be invited.
“It still hasn’t properly sunk in that I’m going to have the opportunity to be involved in a small way in such a monumental event in history.
“It’ll be my chance to say a final farewell to someone I looked up to. The Queen did wonders for the country. She was a constant stable presence for so long through so much for so many people.”
Guy said meeting the Queen when she visited Margate in 2011 left a lasting impression on him.
He said: “She was keen to spend time with and meet everybody as individuals. I was quite nervous, but the moment we were in the presence of Her Majesty, I felt immediately at peace as she put everyone completely at ease.”
Lynn McManus, 61, of North Shields, Northumberland, received her invite after being honoured for building a special play centre for disabled children.
“It’s an honour. It’s a once in a lifetime thing to be able to experience. The Queen was an inspirational lady and set an example I’d be delighted if I could follow.”
In 2010, Virginia Williams-Ellis, 64, of north Gloucestershire, working as a prison literacy tutor, set up the Read Easy UK charity to help adult learn to read.
She said: “It’s incredible. I couldn’t believe it when I got the call – I was truly amazed and lost for words. To be able to be a witness to this event is just incredible. Emma Lewis, 42, who set up the Roots Foundation Wales charity to help disadvantaged young people in the care system was given an MBE on June 1.
She said: “It’s a very strange thing to be asked to go to a funeral of someone you don’t know but you think you know because you’ve seen them your entire life. So I feel overwhelmed and grateful to be asked.
“I also want the children I work with to see that if a thing like this can happen to me it can happen to them.”
Among those invited to the funeral are naturalist Sir David Attenborough, three-time world F1 champ Jackie Stewart and the Queen’s racing manager John Warren.
They are to be joined by royalty including Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco.
Politicians from all over the world are expected to attend, such as PMs from Australia, New Zealand and Canada – Anthony Albanese, Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau.
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, President Duda of Poland, US President Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Italian president Sergio Mattarella and Finland’s Sauli Niinisto, are also on the list.
From Asia, Sri Lanka’s president Ranil Wickremesinghe, Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina and South Korea president Yoon Suk-yeol are attending.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President, Charles Michel have confirmed.
New Zealand’s delegation will include soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Canada is bringing Leslie Arthur Palmer, a member of the coastguard awarded Canada’s Cross of Valour for rescuing two fisherman in 2004, and Killing Eve actress Sandra Oh.
