Queen's uniquely adapted coffin is lead-lined and so heavy it needs extra pallbearers
ok.co.ukEagle-eyed viewers of yesterdays procession of the late Queen's coffin as it was transported from Holyroodhouse to St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh may have noticed that it required eight pallbearers, rather than the usual six.
Now it's been revealed that the reason for that is because the late monarch's coffin is lead-lined, making it so heavy that it requires extra strength to carry it.
According to the Telegraph, Queen Elizabeth ll’s coffin was made more than 30 years ago by the same firm that made the lead-lined casket in which the Duke of Edinburgh lies, interred in the Royal Vault, before he joins the Queen in the King George VI Memorial Vault.The reason that the 'coffin within a coffin' needs to be lead-lined is due to the fact that the Queen will be interred, rather than buried, in the King George VI Memorial Vault, where the remains of her father father, King George's VI, the Queen Mother and her sister Princess Margaret are resting.
The lead-lined casket of the Queen's was made by the specialist firm Henry Smith, which closed in 2005 and which also made the Duke of Edinburgh's coffin, as well as those of celebrities including Diana Dors, Freddie Mercury and Jimi Hendrix.
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