Queen Elizabeth

CODE: LONDON BRIDGE IS DOWN

BY CATHERINE FORD

The Queen of England was the longest reigning monarch, holding the crown for seven decades; she made history. Queen Elizabeth II passed away September 8th, 2022. Long before Queen Elizabeth was ever sick, there was a code for when she died. The code was “London Bridge is Down” and it held the announcement of her death and the start of the official mourning period along with the details for her state funeral. When Elizabeth’s predecessor, King George VI, passed away due to a lung condition, England followed the same mourning period that they are following now due to Queen Elizabeth’s passing. With Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth passing, her funeral commencement was held in Westminster Abbey where she will be laid to rest with her late husband Prince Phillip. The reason behind this choice was because she did not want to take the spotlight from other monarchs (including Princess Diana) such as her father by having her ceremony in the same chapel. When Buckingham Palace announced her death to the general public, the twelveday mourning period started. During these twelve days, the queen was being transported from Scotland to London, where her funeral was held in Westminster Abbey. The public in England was limited to certain activities and outings, as many stores and public buildings were closed. “From the moment the queen became monarch, Whitehall started the planning process about what would happen when she died,” said Philip Murphy, a professor of British and Commonwealth history at the University of London. King George VI, like Elizabeth, had a code word for what happens in the event of him passing. King George VI used “Hyde Park Corner.” Like Elizabeth’s code, his code told Buckingham palace to send the news from the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is the head of state, and the 36 other nations of the commonwealth. This meticulous plan had been placed since before Elizabeth because Queen. Now King Charles will be getting his own code for his passing, like his mother and his grandfather had.