Queen's funeral: Yorkshire royalists make pilgrimage to London to pay respects

Joy Brayshaw, from Leeds, spent two days in the capital getting a prime position to watch the historic event.

Speaking before the procession, she said: “It has been fantastic. People have been really genuine and friendly and we have all helped each other out.

"It is going to be a really sad day today but the lead up to it has been really good. The company has been amazing.”

Emily, who is originally from York but now living in London, said: “I’m just here to celebrate The Queen .

"She did so much for the country and means a lot to everyone. It is just an emotional day.”

One woman from Doncaster arrived in London at 1am to take up her position in the crowd.

"It has all been very friendly and we have all got to know each other,” she said of her fellow spectators.

The crowd along the Mall broke into applause and cheers after the Queen’s coffin passed them and circled round the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace.

Members of the royal family, including the King, remained expressionless as they marched behind, while other members of the royal family, including the Princess of Wales, looked on at the crowds as they passed them in vehicles.

Once the coffin reached Buckingham Palace, members of staff at the palace bowed and curtsied both at the coffin and members of the royal family as they made their way past.

Mark Elliott, a 53-year-old who owns a roofing company, travelled from the Lake District with his wife and two children to watch the Queen’s funeral procession.

When asked what it was like to experience, he said: “It kind of brought it home.

"I know we don’t know The Queen, but she’s been our head of state for 70 years, you feel as though you know her, you feel as though she’s part of the family.

"It is kind of moving.”

The family left their hotel at 1.30am and arrived at The Mall at 2am to secure a good viewing spot.

Mr Elliott said: “We sat under the trees just there, it was lovely and warm, and the atmosphere was great, everybody was friendly.”

Commenting on why he came to see the procession in person, he said: “The last one was 70 years ago. I really wanted to bring my children so they could get a feel of it.

"This is experiencing something I’ve never experienced before and it’s history in the making, isn’t it?

“It’s being a part of history, this goes back hundreds of years, this is our history and I feel as though we’ve been a part of it.”

Noreen Roberts, who watched the procession in London after losing her friend on the same day the Queen died, said she had imagined them in heaven together after the coffin was borne along The Mall.

Ms Roberts, 63, from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, said she had felt the late monarch’s presence as the cortege passed.

“I definitely felt her presence today. It was nice to feel close to her one last time,” she said.

“For such a little person she had this huge presence. I lost my friend on the same day she died and I can imagine the two of them up there at the pearly gates.”

Gwilym Jones, a 39-year-old accountant from Queen’s Park, London, travelled to see the Queen’s funeral on crutches.

He said: “The Queen was a huge part of my life and, as everyone has said, a very stable monarch and a real voice of reason during crazy times. Keen to be here and pay my last respects to her.

“It’s been a bit of a difficult thing being on crutches and all that, but you couldn’t stop turning up to these kind of things.

“The royal family themselves have been through difficult times as well and the Queen’s always turned up and always put on a brave face. So, the least I could do is bear my problems, as little as they are in comparison.”