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QUEEN INDIA SCENE

State Funeral and burial of Queen Elizabeth

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State funeral and burial of Queen Elizabeth

HANDOUT on 9/12/22

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Britain Royals Funeral

Britain mourns Queen Elizabeth

In the very first couple of hours of day on Saturday, September 17, 2022, members of the public pay their respects as they pass the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II as it lies in State inside Westminster Hall in London.

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A look inside Queen Elizabeth II’s final resting place

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The news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death Thursday afternoon did not come as a shock in Washington. She was 96 and had been ill. Cable news channels and social media overflowed all morning and early afternoon with updates and rumors about her condition. The news came instead as a final word, confirmation that an unprecedented era had ended.

For some Washingtonians, especially those with British ties, the finality landed with a heavier weight than they had expected. Queen Elizabeth was the only monarch most of them had ever known.

Andrew Murray, an architect from London who lives on Capitol Hill, said his reaction to the news surprised him.

“I’m no royalist. I was generally ambivalent and even disdainful toward the royals,” he said in a text. “But I feel genuinely tearful right now.”

Murray, 49, said Elizabeth had been queen his entire life and for most of his parents’ lives as well.

“That is a lot of anecdotes and conversation and of her being part of the background to things,” he said. “And to be fair, while her family is often a mess, she was bloody good at what she did.”

By midafternoon Thursday there were more media members than mourners in front of the British Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue NW. A dozen bouquets of flowers were placed on the Union Jack emblem that greets visitors at the embassy’s entrance. By evening, though, the number of bouquets had multiplied many times. President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the embassy about 6 p.m. to sign a condolence book.

Edward Rogers stopped at the makeshift memorial outside with his daughter India, 3, who carefully placed red roses next to the other flowers. “We just wanted to pay our respects,” Rogers said. The Washington resident said he and his family travel often to the United Kingdom and regularly spend Thanksgiving there. “We loved her. We love the country.”

Linda Gikas walked from her nearby home to the embassy to pay tribute to the late queen. Gikas, 70, is American but had worked at the embassy from 2012 to 2014 and said she wanted to recognize how Elizabeth had “always answered the call to duty.”

See how the world is mourning Queen Elizabeth II, in photos and videos

“As an American woman I looked up to her,” Gikas said. “She took on so many tasks with graciousness. She was a source of strength.”

Not everyone who showed up at the embassy was there to express admiration. A man wearing a mask knelt down on the sidewalk and scrawled a Gaelic inscription in chalk that translated to “Our day will come,” the catch-cry of Irish Republicans seeking unification of the Republic of Ireland with six<b> </b>counties of Northern Ireland that<b> </b>remain part of the United Kingdom.

Queen Elizabeth had a long history with Washington, having traveled here often on royal visits during a reign that spanned 14 presidential administrations. In 1951, then still a princess, Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, came to town for an official visit and a meeting with President Harry S. Truman. She returned on numerous occasions, including a memorable 1991 trip when she visited the home of Washingtonian <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/03/19/honoring-one-who-embraced-the-world/c06645fb-2817-48c2-b8f8-5d51c831256b/" target="_blank">Alice Frazier</a>, who ignored protocol and greeted the queen with a big hug.

Queen Elizabeth accepted the hug, stiffly it must be said, but declined the potato salad Frazier offered.

Across Washington, the queen’s death was marked in various ways. Flags at the White House were ordered flown at half-staff. At Washington National Cathedral beginning at 5 p.m. the bells tolled 96 times. And Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) tweeted, “On behalf of 700,000 Washingtonians, we send our love to the people of the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II led a remarkable life, changed the world’s perception of women in leadership, &amp; defined the British monarchy for generations of people worldwide.”

In the afternoon lull before dinner at Union Market, the occasional passerby paused for a photo or a double take at the British restaurant and snack shop Aboveground. A large Union Jack with a photo of Queen Elizabeth celebrating her Platinum Jubilee hung from the storefront. Sarah Christianson stopped by to pick up some Hobnobs, a British chocolate biscuit. Christianson, who grew up in Oxford, England, before moving to D.C., had been following news of the queen — “like a symbol of England for my whole life” — all morning as her friends texted back and forth.

“I’m not going to be heartbroken because she was a very old woman who had an amazing life,” Christianson, 45, said. “But yeah, it’s a bit of a strange feeling.”

A visual timeline of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne:

At The Queen Vic bar on H Street NE, half of the TV screens were tuned to an NFL pregame show and the other half played the BBC, as presenters in black suits spoke in front of the evening crowds gathering in London.

Avery Phillips nursed an Ale to the Queen — “it felt appropriate.”

“It feels like the end of an era,” said Phillips, 27, who grew up in Surrey, England, and moved to D.C. from Australia last year. “I was so sure she’d make it to 100.”

“It’s sad,” said Charles Keats, who sat next to her. “For a lot of people she’s the only queen they’ll ever remember.”

Keats, who is from Maryland but grew up in London, reminisced about his time in the U.K. and swapped British history trivia with Phillips. They wondered how people would take to the monarchy after Elizabeth’s death.

Keats, 57, raised his pint glass and offered a toast — “to the king.”

Alexa Juliana Ard

University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, master's

Villanova University, BA in English

Joe Heim joined The Washington Post in 1999. He is a staff writer for the Metro section. 

Joe Heim

Stanford University, BA in History and MA in Communications

Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News.