Members of the royal family wiped away tears as they read some of the thousands of tributes to the Queen left at the gates of Balmoral.
Prince Andrew joined his siblings, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, and other senior royals to greet well-wishers after attending a private memorial church service on Saturday.
Dressed in a black suit, Prince Andrew, who has taken a step back from public life after his car-crash Newsnight interview over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, said: “We’ve been allowed one day, now we start the process of handing her on.”
The Princess Royal‘s children, Peter Philips and Zara Tindall, also came to see the messages left by the public, as did the Countess of Wessex, her daughter Lady Louise Windsor, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.
Prince Andrew took a moment to put his arms around his daughters as they stood and read the tributes. The family was brought to the Scottish estate in a cavalcade of Range Rovers after attending a short service dedicated to the late Queen in the church she regularly attended when staying at Balmoral.
Making his way down the lines of the crowd, Prince Andrew talked to a couple, Heather Blewitt and James Dyson, who were clutching a bunch of purple, white and yellow flowers. He asked where they had come from and thanked them when they told him they had driven up from Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
“It makes a difference when the royals come out,” Ms Blewitt, who had driven five and a half hours to be there.
Donna Crompton, 58, held Princess Eugenie’s hand and patted her on the back after spotting her tearing up as she walked along the line of mourners. Ms Crompton had travelled from Liverpool to Balmoral on Saturday morning with her husband Andy, 63. When she told Prince Edward how far she had travelled, he said: “Crikey, that’s a long way!”.
“Sophie was also noticeably upset. She said ‘thank you for coming, it means a lot’,” Ms Crompton added.
Matthew Roland-Page, 25, had come to Balmoral with his 18-month-old baby Ezra. Standing with his young son in the crowd, Princess Beatrice picked him out and commented on how well behaved the child was. “She said he was being very patient and she wasn’t sure her children necessarily would,” he told The Independent.
Princess Beatrice gave birth to a daughter, Sienna, last September and has a stepson, Christopher Woolf Mapelli Mozzi, with her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi. Speaking about why he had come to pay his respects to the Queen, Mr Roland-Page recalled how he had met Her Majesty when she came to open gardens at the Royal Infirmary where he worked.
His parents and grandparents had also been guests at royal garden parties. “I hope King Charles will be like his mother. I think the world needs more people with grace and a listening ear to the problems that the world is facing,” he said.
Cameron, 11, and Blair, 7, shook Princess Eugenie’s hand as she made her way up the Balmoral driveway to look at the flowers. “Prince Edward and Prince Andrew said ‘thank you for coming’,” Blair said. “We saw the royal family walking up here and shook hands with Princess Eugenie,” Cameron said.
Their mother, Katheryn Groudwater, said they weren’t expecting to see the royals and had just come to lay flowers and pay their respects.
“I think a lot of people in Scotland thought that the Queen viewed Balmoral as her spiritual home. I feel like it was her wish to pass away here,” she said. She thought King Charles came across really well in the speech but hadn’t expected him to mention Harry and Meghan.
“I think he just wants everyone to come back together again – instead of being separated – and be a family again.”
One family had made a nine-and-a-half-hour journey from St Albans, Hertforsdhire, to pay their respects at Balmoral. Joseph Philipose, who works in Fintech, said he started driving on Friday night at 10pm – reaching the Scottish estate by mid-morning. “We strongly felt that we should come here because the Queen’s body is here. We thought of coming here and paying the last respects with the children,” he told The Independent.
“The Queen was always an inspiration for me and for my children and I feel satisfied now that we have come here and said a prayer for her.” His daughter, Thea, said: “I hope King Charles can inspire us as well, just like the Queen.”
They had not yet been to Buckingham Palace but had planned to get some rest and return to London to see the Queen lying in state.
Mark Lindley-Highfield, 47, a lecturer from Inverness, was wearing traditional mourning dress out of respect for The Queen.
“For me particularly, I wanted to be at the place where Her Majesty passed,” he said.
Speaking about the way he was dressed, he added: “I’m hoping to honour traditional views about mourning. I’m wearing as much black as I could comfortably don today, but I did think Her Majesty would want a little bit of brightness to carry forwards. Especially will King Charles III’s reign, I thought she would want us to be looking towards the future.”
