Penny Lancaster has given her verdict on policing Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, describing it as the “the biggest honour of all.”
The TV presenter and former model – who is married to Sir Rod Stewart – was one of 15,000 police officers working the funeral procession in London on Monday and manned the barriers near Queen Victoria’s Memorial. Special Constable Lancaster joined City of London Police in April 2021 and said she would not have missed Her Majesty’s funeral “for the world.”
Speaking to the PA news agency on Monday, she said: “I think it's [the same reason] why every officer wanted to be here today, because we swore an oath to the Queen to serve in the office of constable. This is the biggest honour of all.
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“We were in uniform by 5am this morning and we don’t know what time we will be working until. We just want to make sure that all the crowds get home safely.
“Today has been quite a long shift, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”
Penny, 51, volunteers around 200 hours a year in the force, which equates to around one shift a week, and felt it was a “wonderful opportunity” to be so close to the procession to pay her respects to the late monarch. Describing the lead up to the funeral as “an emotional few days,” she insisted her main priority was being aware of the “potential dangers and risks,” adding: “The focus is mostly on my duty.”
The Queen’s funeral is predicted to have attracted more than four billion viewers globally, which would make it the most watched broadcast in history. Preliminary figures provided by Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan suggest more than 250,000 people viewed her coffin as it lay in state in London, although she said the department is still “crunching the numbers.”
Despite the immense crowds filling the capital’s streets, Loose Women panellist Penny said the historic day went by without incident. Speaking to Sky News, she said: “You can never quite predict how the crowd is going to react and the dangers that might lay ahead.
"But we've had great training and preparation and fortunately everybody paid their respects in the proper manner and we didn't have any incidents to speak of. So, [I'm] very grateful for that."
Penny began volunteering with the force after appearing in Channel 4's Famous and Fighting Crime, in which celebrities swapped their day jobs with those of emergency service professionals. Her previous jobs have included working at RAF Northolt, where the Queen’s coffin arrived from Scotland last week before it was taken to Buckingham Palace.
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