William and Kate have arrived at Sandringham estate to greet well-wishers and look at tributes left to the Queen. Thousands of mourners have visited the Norfolk estate, where the Her Majesty traditionally spent Christmas, to leave flowers and cards since her death last Thursday.
The Prince and Princess of Wales visited the main gates to Sandringham House just after midday to view the piles of tributes left for the late monarch. The couple were pictured greeting well-wishers and collecting flowers and notes to place on their behalf, the Mirror reports.
News of the pair's impending arrival was reported on Thursday morning, with hundreds of visitors gathering behind metal barriers. Norfolk Police stated that an ‘increasing number’ of people were expected, with a one-way system put in place by officers to guide crowds around the estate.
William and Kate's appearance comes as grieving members of the Royal Family travel across the country to view floral tributes and meet well-wishers, as they continue to mourn the Queen. Elsewhere, Prince Edward and the Queen's close daughter-in-law Sophie Wessex are in Manchester, where they have lit a candle in memory of Her Majesty at the city’s cathedral.
They viewed the floral tributes and mingled with fans in St Ann’s Square and looked at the book of condolence at Manchester’s Central Library. Here, they are meeting representatives of organisations of which the Queen was patron.
Meanwhile, Princess Anne, accompanied by her husband Sir Tim Laurence is visiting the Glasgow City Chambers. She was pictured talking to Holly McBride, four, from Glasgow, during a visit to the City Chambers also to meet representatives of organisations of which Queen Elizabeth II was Patron.
The royals have fanned out across the country to meet those paying tribute to the Queen just a day after she left Buckingham Palace for a final time yesterday. Her coffin was taken in a procession from the palace to Westminster Hall, where senior royals including King Charles, William and Prince Harry walked in solidarity behind it.
Then during a service at the hall led by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Queen's relatives stood in formation facing the coffin on its purple-covered catafalque. The platform was flanked with a tall, yellow flickering candle at each corner of the wide scarlet platform.
Today, thousands of mourners have continued to join the miles-long queue to pay their respects to the Queen as she lies in state at Westminster Hall. The coffin, which sits on a catafalque and is draped with a Royal Standard, continues to be guarded at all hours by units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London.
The largely black-clad crowd were solemn and pensive as they flowed into the ancient hall where chandeliers and spotlights illuminated the scene beneath the medieval timber roof. As hundreds of ordinary people of all ages filed past the coffin of the long-reigning monarch, many wiped their eyes with tissues.
Meanwhile, final preparations for the Queen’s funeral have been taking place in London, as thousands of military personnel took part in a full rehearsal early on Thursday morning for the procession of her coffin from Westminster Hall to Wellington Arch.
The rehearsal took place before sunrise and saw the State Gun Carriage, towed by almost 100 naval personnel and bearing a black coffin, travel from Westminster Hall, on to Westminster Abbey, and then through central London.
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