NATION'S GRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22346, 18 February 1936, Page 14

NATION'S GRIEF

JOUBNEY TO LONDON SIMPLE AND IMPRESSIVE COURAGE OF ROYAL FAMILY [from our own correspondent] By Air Mail LONDON. Jan. '.15 The first part of the funeral journey of King George V. was made amid scenes which gained impressivenesu from their simplicity. For nearly live miles, from San-'ringham and across London.; King Edward and his brotlierß walked behind the coffin of their father. The winter day was fine, the pky was unclouded, and thero were glimpses of the sun. After a short »ervice at Sandringham Church, the coffin was borne on a gun-carriage to Wolferton Station and brought by train to London. The King, Queen Mary, and the Royal Family travelled by the same train. From Sandringham the leave taking was intimate and very simple. The King, with the Duke and Duch«ss; of York and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, had returned to the Norfolk country seat on the afternoon before. As His Majesty drove from the station everyone stood bareheaded and fciient. The King's grief was respected. The Queen welcomed her son for the first time as the proclaimed King of England. Walking across the park with the Duke of Gloucester in the evening, the King made his first visit to the church since his father was carried there. The brothers knelt beside the coffin. The Duke of Gloucester had not been able to visit his father during the last, illness. In the afternoon, the Queen, with the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, and Lord Harewood, had. walked to the church and had knelt in silent prayer for several minutes by the coffin. Royal Mourners On the morning of the funeral, the King, his three brothers, and Lord Harewood, walked to the church from Sandringham House by the most direct path. They all wore morning dress, black cloth overcoats with astrakan collars, and each carried a silk hat. Queen Mary, with the Royal ladies, all heavily veiled, drove there by way of the old Norwich Gates in two carriages. /■ The King and Queen Mary sat beside each other in the Royal pew on the south side of the chancel. The brief and simple service was conducted by the Bishop of Norwich, and the rector, the ReV. A. R. Fuller. The choir boys sang the twenty-third Psalmthe one hymn was "Peace, Perfect Peace." Emotion could not be restrained when the bishop read those beautiful, passages from Revelation: — God shall wipe away all tears from their eyesj and there shall be no morn death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither, shall there be any more pain .... The new King's countenance was not pale,' but tinged warmly with emotion fought down and curbed; his eyes, strained, looked into the distance. The observer looked away from that face of the son stamped with grief. Homage of the People

Grenadier Guardemeil, bareheaded, lifted the coffin and carried it ou'j and down the Btens to the gun-carriage. The coffin was draped with the Royal Standard and upon it lay the choice white and pink flowers—the wreaths from the King and Queen Mary. The King walked just behind the coffin, and behind him came - his brothers and Lord Harewood. Queen Mary entered the grey-horsed Lonsdale coach with the Princess Royal and the Duchesw of York. 'ln . the second .carriage were the Duchess of Gloucester, the Ducheus of Kent, I and the Queen's two ladics-in-waiting, Lady Desborongh and Lady Elizabeth Motion. A team of eight horses drew the gun-carriage, and thf procession set forth for Wolferton Statiohr-2i miles distant. Along the Railway The train bearing the body of King George, to London passed everywhere during its journey of 102 miles between lines of people who had come out to make their last tributes of respect. • In the darkened roadway beside the platform at King's Cross Station the Guards of Honour from the Navy, tho Grenadier Guards, and the Royal, Air Force had already brought their rifles with fixed bayonets to the '-'present" and stood rigid. A few black-coated officials , waited on the platform. The double-doors of the saloon in which tho body of King George lay were gently opened. : The door of Queen Mary's saloon/next behind it, was opened. No 60und broke the stillness. Then King Edward descended from his saloon and moved to the door of Queen Mary's coach to assist his mother and then his sister to alight. / Passing New. Zealand. House Tho flag-draped coffin, on' which rested the Imperial Crown, bet with 3000 diamonds and the Black Prince's great ruby, was borne out of the station and placed upon the gun-carriage. As the procession reached The Strand, its impressive simplicity struck everyone. There were just a few mounted officers, and then the gun-carriage immediately came into viow, drawn by six horses, with six stalwart Guardsmen on either side. Tho entire routo from King's Cross to Westminster was crowded with sympathisers and the lines wore kept merely by police,, stationed at wide intervals. Immediately behind the gun-carriage walked the king, with the Duke of York on his right and the Duke of Gloucester on his left. The Duko of Kent came next with the Earl of Harewood. Sixteen members of the household followed. The Duke of Glou-c-ftstei' first lookod up at New Zealand House and kept, his eyes fixed there; the .King- nes% looked up, and it was jjotsibje to realise how bravely he was bearing a groat strain. His eyes seemed to be looking steadfastly into the future. He turned his head and faced forward/ The King and his brothers ar»» well acquainted with New Zealand House, and it was evident that they made a point of noticing it as they passed by. At the Cenotaph The entrance had been draped with b{ack, and the New Zealand flag was at half-mast. > The short cortege passed along into the gnpat ball of a red sun. sotting beyond Trafalgar Square and beyond■ Buckingham Palace. The King looked very fair in comparison with hid , ! v brothers. From the "Admiralty Arch there flut tered the White Ensign, which is flown at half-mast for the death of none but the Lord High Admiral. As the cortege reached the Cenotaph, in deep stillness the mounted police in front, the artillery drivers, and the walking Grenadier bearer party turned their heads and eyes to the right toward the Cenotaph. The coffin slowly passed, and then King Edward, his brothers and the group of members of the late King's household who followed them made the same quiet movement in salute to the War Memorial. Here tho procession neared its first resting place, the Pal- |£ ,*°® °f Westminster. Nowhere was there . concourse than outside Old