Windsor funeral to be a private occasion

Princess Margaret's royal funeral will be a private occasion for family and friends.

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Few flowers and just a trickle of mourners for the tragic princess

Windsor funeral to be a private occasion

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Princess Margaret

State funerals with full pomp and ceremony are generally limited to sovereigns but can, by order of the reigning monarch and by a vote in Parliament, to provide the funds, be extended to exceptionally distinguished commoners. Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and most recently, Sir Winston Churchill, are examples.

Ceremonial royal funerals are for those members of the Royal Family who hold high military rank, for the consort of the sovereign and for the heir to the throne.

But the funeral of Princess Margaret at St George's Chapel, Windsor, on Friday afternoon falls into a third category of royal funerals. The private royal funeral is for all other members of the Royal Family, their children and their spouses.

No burial place has yet been announced for the Princess although there is royal precedence for burial at Frogmore, Windsor.

The Frogmore Royal Burial Ground lies immediately to the south of the mausoleum of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the gardens of Frogmore House. Members of the Royal Family – with the exception of sovereigns, other than King Edward VIII, who abdicated – have been buried there since the consecration of the ground in 1928. An information board indicates who is buried there. The ground is closed to the public. The first burials at Frogmore were those of nine members of the Royal Family who had previously been interred in the Royal Vault in St George's Chapel at Windsor, including two of Queen Mary's brothers, and Princess Helena and her husband.

Some of those more recently buried there include Queen Marie of Yugoslavia (1961), a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (1972 and 1986), and the Marchioness of Cambridge (1988).

The Queen has declared a period of royal mourning until the Princess's funeral on Friday. Members of the Royal Family and their households will wear dark colours and black ties. Military officers on public duties will wear black armbands.

Official duties are continuing for members of the Royal Family but social engagements have been postponed.