Prince William attends the funeral of the Queen Mother

Prince William was one of many mourners at the funeral of his great-grandmother on 9th April 2002.

Westminster Abbey's Tenor Bell tolled 101 times to mark the start of the Queen Mother's funeral. As the sound rang out across central London - one toll each minute for every year of her life - thousands of people gathered in the streets outside before to the service which began at 11.30am.

People from all over Britain had been arriving in Parliament Square shortly after 6am when the doors to Westminster Hall closed, bringing to an end the Queen Mother's lying-in-state.

To the sound of a 128-strong pipe band, the gun carriage bearing the Queen Mother's coffin went the short distance from Westminster Hall to the Abbey at 11.15am.

Along wih his brother Prince Harry, his father the Prince of Wales and his grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh Prince William walked with the coffin of his great-grandmother from the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey.

With hymns, readings and prayers, the Queen Mother's funeral service was as much a joyous celebration of her life as a solemn farewell.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, set the tone in his sermon, paying tribute to the Queen Mother's "three great gifts" of strength, dignity and laughter.

"We come here to mourn but also to give thanks, to celebrate the person and her life - both filled with such a "rich sense of fun and joy and the music of laughter," Carey told the congregation at Westminster Abbey.

The hour-long service was attended by the Queen and the rest of the royal family, Prime Minister Tony Blair, four ex-prime ministers and Laura Bush, wife of President George W Bush, representing the United States of America.

25 members of European royal families were joined by royals from other countries, including Jordan and Brunei. Among the first to arrive, mostly descendants of Queen Victoria, were Prince Hans-Adam of Liechtenstein, and King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. Also there were King Michael and Queen Anne of Romania, Prince Ernst August of Hannover with his wife the former Princess Caroline of Monaco, and King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain also attended. The king had lost his own mother two years before and was one of the first to offer his condolences to Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen Mother, who died on 30th March at the age of 101, had been actively involved over the years in planning her funeral and chose the hymns and music herself.

Thousands of people listened to the service outside the abbey which was relayed via powerful loudspeakers.

After the service the cortege then left the abbey with the bells, half-muffled, pealing out from above. Prince Charles travelled with the coffin of the Queen Mother in the journey to Windsor, his face still etched with intense grief at the loss of his great-grandmother.

Crowds lined the streets as the cortege went past. Virtually the entire route to Windsor was lined with people who had come to catch a glimpse of the Queen Mother's final journey. At times the crowd broke out into spontaneous applause. Some threw flowers or crossed themselves. Others said a silent prayer as the vehicles went by or watched in silence. Police estimated that a million people had lined the route.

Later in the day the remains of the Queen Mother were laid to rest in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle next to those of her husband, King George VI, king from the moment his brother King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 until his death in 1952. The ceremony was attended by members of the royal family and a small number of invited guests.

The changing attitude of the British people towards the monarchy was shown in an opinion poll conducted for The Independent newspaper after the death of the Queen Mother. Only 12 per cent of Britons want it abolished. Only a year before, a poll showed that 34 per cent wanted the monarchy scrapped, an all-time high, and that people were evenly divided on whether Britain would be better off without the royal family.