Demise of the Crown: #17: Queen Victoria

As the official public record since 1665, The Gazette has been recording the deaths of monarchs for over three centuries. As part of our ‘Demise of the Crown’ series, historian Russell Malloch looks through the archives at The Gazette’s reporting of the death of Queen Victoria.

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Death of Queen Victoria

The first state honours to be conferred in connection with a demise of the crown related to the passing of Queen Victoria, an event that was announced in The Gazette in a bulletin which explained that she breathed her last at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight on 22 January 1901 “surrounded by her children and grandchildren” (Gazette issue 27269).

That solemn news was published in The Gazette 81 years after the same journal had reported that “the Duchess of Kent was happily delivered of a princess” at Kensington Palace on 24 May 1819, when Victoria’s arrival was witnessed by an audience that included Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington.

The Gazette showed that the Queen expired at a time of international tension, as the nation was still engaged in its war against the Dutch republics, where the Duke of Teck’s sons were serving when he died, and with accounts reaching London that the Queen’s grandson, Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein, had died of malaria while on active service, and was buried at Pretoria.

One of the Queen’s last acts as sovereign related to the prosecution of the war with the Boers, as she presented the insignia of a knight of the Garter to Field-Marshal Lord Roberts at Osborne on 2 January, on the day he returned to England, having passed the chief command of the South African operations to Lord Kitchener (Gazette issue 27290).

Queen Victoria laying on her deathbed

Osborne to Windsor

The demise of the crown created issues of logistics, in terms of conveying the sovereign’s remains from the Isle of Wight to Windsor. This matter had not arisen on the departure of the last three kings, as George III and his sons had all expired at their castle in Berkshire. Most of the earlier monarchs who died on English soil did so within a few miles of London or Windsor, although there were exceptions: Edward I departed this life in 1307 at Burgh by Sands near Carlisle, and close to the Scottish border; while Richard III fell on the battlefield at Bosworth in Leicestershire in 1485.

The Queen’s death led to the use of boats and trains, as well as horses, gun carriages and a naval crew. Travel by air would also feature in transporting the remains of later sovereigns, as Edward VIII’s were flown to England from France in 1972, and Elizabeth II’s completed part of their journey to Windsor by air in 2022.

Victoria’s departure is often remembered because of the difficulties that arose during the last phase of the operation, and for the work the Royal Navy did to help, after the army’s horses were unable to haul the gun carriage through the streets of Windsor. The transport problem was reported in The Gazette, in an account written by Captain Frederick Ponsonby of the Grenadier Guards, who organised the final section of the funeral programme. Ponsonby was an equerry and assistant private secretary to the Queen (Gazette issue 26879), and had many court connections, not least through his father Sir Henry Ponsonby, who served as Victoria’s private secretary for quarter of a century until his death in 1895 (after which he was buried close to Prince Henry of Battenberg at Whippingham).

Gazette reports

The funeral Gazette of May 1901 (Gazette issue 27316) contained three reports about Victoria’s movements, in addition to Captain Ponsonby’s narrative. They were written by Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Davidson, the equerry who supervised the work on the Isle of Wight; Admiral Sir Charles Hotham, the admiral who directed the naval manoeuvres on the Solent, and the Duke of Norfolk, the earl marshal, who was responsible for the processions in London and Windsor, and the service in St George’s Chapel.

The proceedings began with the Queen’s body lying in state at Osborne House, where a “chapelle ardente” was created to house her remains, under the protection of men of the Grenadier Guards. The catafalque was covered with a pall that displayed the royal arms, and on top was set a small diamond crown that was made for the Queen in 1870. Personal items were placed in the coffin, including a lock of hair of her Highland servant and companion John Brown.

On 1 February the casket, but now displaying the imperial state crown, a sceptre and two orbs, was borne from Osborne by the Queen’s Highlanders, and placed on a gun carriage for its journey to East Cowes on the coast. The carriage was drawn by eight horses and escorted by the Queen’s Company of the Grenadier Guards, while the pall bearers were eight equerries and aides de camp, including Captain Ponsonby and Colonel Davidson.

Behind the coffin walked King Edward and his nephew, the German Emperor, who were both with the Queen when she died, and then family members and their households, and tenants from the Osborne estate. This was a significant time in German history, as the emperor was due to attend the bi-centenary celebrations in Berlin to mark the anniversary of the foundation of the Prussian kingdom in 1701 (Gazette issue 3677), but he chose to remain at Windsor, where one of Edward’s first acts was to confer the Garter on his son, the Crown Prince of Germany.

Cosmo Lang, a local vicar who later became archbishop of Canterbury and conducted George V’s funeral in 1936, came to Osborne to assist the bishop of Winchester manage the Victorian arrangements. He reported that the German Emperor had helped during the process, and gave one instance:

“It was said by some of her family that the Queen’s pictures in the temporary chapel should be domestic, of herself with her husband and children – a very characteristic trait. Others thought that this would be inappropriate and that the pictures should be of sacred subjects. It was the emperor who suggested that the points might be combined by putting on the walls pictures representing the holy family and our lord in the home life of Nazareth. And this was done.”₁

The royal yacht carried the coffin from the Isle of Wight to Gosport, where it was guarded overnight by a sentry that included Captain Edmund Poe, whose part in the loss of Prince Henry of Battenberg, and related Victorian Order appointment, were noted earlier. The next morning the Queen’s remains went by train to Victoria Station, and the first of two major processions began. There was, however, no lying in state in London, of the kind that was organised in 1898 for the former prime minister William Gladstone, who rested in Westminster Hall for two days before he was buried in the abbey, when his pall bearers included the future kings Edward VII and George V.

The main cortege conveyed the Queen’s coffin between the railway stations at Victoria and Paddington. The event was largely military in its aspect, with places for foreign attaches, and the British forces being joined by deputations from units of the German Army. The casket was borne on a gun carriage and accompanied by Victoria’s naval and military aides de camp, as well as the eight pall bearers from Osborne, together with three extra supporters, including Sir James Reid, the doctor who signed the bulletin announcing Victoria’s death, and placed the Brown mementos in the coffin (Gazette issue 27269), and Prince Louis, the elder brother of the late Prince Henry of Battenberg.

Queen Victoria funeral processiion

Restive horses

On its arrival at Windsor Station from Paddington, the Queen’s remains were transferred to a new gun carriage, which was drawn by eight horses, and joined by a bearer party from the Guards and Household Cavalry. The casket continued to be covered by the royal standard, and displayed the regalia and Garter insignia, and with naval and military guards of honour nearby. The report explained that: “At the moment of starting for St George’s Chapel the horses attached to the gun carriage became restive and it was found necessary to unharness them”.

At the suggestion of Prince Louis of Battenberg, and as organised by Captain Ponsonby, the duty of conveying the carriage to the chapel was now assigned to the men who formed the naval guard of honour. The detachment came from the Royal Naval Gunnery School on Whale Island near Portsmouth, known as HMS Excellent, and they succeeded in transporting the coffin from the station to the castle.

The ceremonial included a few civil elements, and while the officers of arms had not walked in the cavalcade on the Isle of Wight, or in London, they took their places when Victoria’s body arrived at Windsor, as they did at all of the other funerals that were reported in The Gazette after the death of the sovereign.

Altered arrangements

Some changes were made to the programme that was observed at the last demise of the crown in 1837, by limiting the places for the royal households, and by dispensing entirely with the attendance of peers and their sons, bishops and privy counsellors, and judges and law officers. There was no addition of colour from the banners of the kingdoms over which Victoria ruled, in contrast to the display at William IV’s funeral, and the pall bearers were drawn from the Queen’s household, rather than the highest rank of the nobility.

The procession had a truly international flavour, as Edward was joined by the German Emperor and the kings of Belgium, Greece and Portugal, and by envoys from kingdoms such as Denmark, Italy and Siam, and delegates from foreign states, including ambassadors from France, Japan and the United States of America.

The appearance of foreign monarchs was an innovation, but it did not signify the return of any compliments that were paid by Queen Victoria to foreign courts, as she never attended the obsequies for any European sovereign or their consort, even before 1861 when she withdrew from many royal functions after her husband’s death.

Victoria normally observed the postmortem rituals for her royal neighbours by sending a family member or senior diplomat. In relation to the mourning notices that were gazetted during the last decade of her life, the Prince of Wales represented his mother at the service for Emperor Alexander at St Petersburg in 1894 (Gazette issue 26567), and the Queen’s sons-in-law went to events for two members of the royal circle who were assassinated, as Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein attended the service for the Austrian Empress Elizabeth at Vienna in 1898 (Gazette issue 27004), and the Duke of Argyll was present at King Umberto’s funeral at Rome in 1900 (Gazette issue 27215).

The Queen did, however, take part in some of the home services that were held in parallel with the overseas ceremonies, as in 1898 when she attended Crathie Church at Balmoral after the death of the Empress of Austria.

Queen Victoria coffin at the Albert Memorial Chapel

Windsor services

The Queen’s coffin, attended by the King and the foreign sovereigns, was received at St George’s Chapel by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, and by the three spiritual officers of the Garter.

An innovation, which was repeated in 2022, was the tolling of the Sebastopol Bell, which was captured during the Crimean War in the 1850s, and was heard for the first time as Victoria’s procession wound its way through Windsor.

There were other ‘firsts’ connected with the funeral, as changes in technology since 1837 resulted in Victoria’s being the first procession to be photographed, and the first to be filmed, with places being found along the route that were suitable for photographers and filmmakers. This meant that many hundreds of thousands of the Queen’s subjects across the empire could see images of what happened at Windsor at the close of her long reign. There was, however, no general photography or filming of the ceremonial in St George’s, in contrast to the arrangements that were approved more than a century later, which led to Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral in 2022 being described as the most widely watched event in world history.

The service followed the usual pattern, with the presence of the Gentlemen at Arms and Yeomen of the Guard. The benediction was delivered by Frederick Temple, the archbishop of Canterbury, who buried the Queen and crowned her successor, just as several of his predecessors had done, ranging from William Sancroft who buried Charles II and crowned James II in 1685, through to William Howley who buried William IV in 1837 and crowned Victoria in 1838.

William Weldon, Norroy king of arms (Gazette issue 26494), acted as deputy to the incapacitated Garter king of arms, and pronounced the late Queen’s titles, which included “sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter”, but once again without any hint of the many other orders of knighthood of which she had become the sovereign, including her own Royal Victorian Order.

One of those who attended the service was the clerk of the Privy Council, Almeric FitzRoy, who had recently organised Edward’s accession council. He wrote:

“[…] up the steep steps was borne the casket containing the dead Queen’s body: the extreme shortness of it struck one with pathetic insistence; almost a child’s coffin this […] Preceded by the choir chanting those sentences which have in them something of the echo of all the dead we have seen carried to their last asylum, followed by kings and emperors and a galaxy of their representatives and attendants, and surrounded by all that was best and noblest in the kingdom she had so long ruled, the body of Queen Victoria passed into the choir, and all that reached us were the broken accents of dirge and homily, till the thrilling voice of Garter proclaimed the style and titles of the dead and hailed the advent of a living king.”₂

FitzRoy said he later attended an excellent luncheon that was provided in St George’s Hall for some 800 guests, while steps were taken to place the Queen’s remains in the Albert Memorial Chapel in readiness for her final journey. The closing pageant on 4 February was entrusted to Frederick Ponsonby, and the coffin was set on a gun carriage to be taken to the mausoleum at Frogmore. The carriage was drawn by horses, rather than the naval crew who helped at Windsor Station, and with the same eight pall bearers as at Osborne. The committal service was read by the prelate of the Garter, and the master of the household, Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton (Gazette issue 26556), had the honour of casting earth upon the Queen’s coffin.

Victoria’s body was then laid to rest in the MacDonald granite sarcophagus, beside the remains of her husband. On top was placed a recumbent figure of a young woman that was completed many years earlier, in anticipation of her reunion with Albert at Frogmore. One of the final measures that joined the couple in death involved the Order of the Garter, as Albert’s banner had remained above his stall in St George’s Chapel since his death in 1861, which was contrary to the usual practice of removing the flag when a knight expired. After Victoria’s demise, the Prince Consort’s banner was finally taken down, and then hung along with the Queen’s banner in their tomb.

Queen Victoria's funeral cortege

Royal letter

On the day after the Queen’s last journey, and as another innovation, The Gazette published letters the King addressed to the home secretary, the people of the British colonies and dependencies, and the princes and people of India. The letter to the home secretary began (Gazette issue 27280):

“Now that the last scene has closed in the noble and ever glorious life of my beloved mother, the Queen, I am anxious to endeavour to convey to the whole Empire the extent of the deep gratitude I feel for the heart-stirring and affectionate tributes which are everywhere borne to her memory. I wish also to express my warm recognition of those universal expressions of what I know to be genuine and loyal sympathy with me and with the royal family in our overwhelming sorrow. Such expressions have reached me from all parts of my vast Empire, while at home the sorrowful, reverent and sincere enthusiasm manifested in the magnificent display by sea and land has deeply touched me.”

There were many further personal touches, as members of the Queen’s personal staff were given the opportunity to pay their respects in a more private manner, and some received mementos to recall their service to the sovereign. The items extended from conventional royal portraits, and gifts bearing the Queen’s VRI cypher, such as brooches, cufflinks, tiepins and watches, through to the clothing the monarch had worn.

The Swiss caterer Gabriel Tschumi, who joined the royal household in 1898, earned the Royal Victorian Medal, and was chef to Queen Mary before her death in 1953, described what came to pass with his cousin, who was one of Victoria’s dressers for more than a decade:

“Earlier Queen Victoria had promised Miss Tschumi several of her gowns in her will, and this promise was not forgotten by the Prince of Wales. When the Queen’s personal effects were disposed of, my cousin was given several fine gowns and other smaller items from the Queen’s personal wardrobe. It was her pleasure to wear one of Queen Victoria’s gowns on occasions, and she had told me many times how much it meant to her to put on even the plainest gown which had belonged to an English monarch.”₃

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Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III

Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.

Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.

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About the author

Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.

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Images

The Gazette

References

J. G. Lockhart, “Cosmo Gordon Lang” (1949), page 139.
FitzRoy, Vol I, page 44.
Gabriel Tschumi, Royal Chef (1954), page 75.

Publication date

10 February 2025

Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.