Retired colonel reveals the exhaustively detailed planning behind Queen Elizabeth II's funeral

dailymail.co.uk:

The retired lieutenant colonel behind the arrangements for Queen Elizabeth’s lying-in-state and her funeral has spoken for the first time about the exhaustively detailed planning that took place away from public view.Lt Col Anthony Mather spent more than a decade drawing up ‘London Bridge’, the codename given to the arrangements for when the Queen died.And, as he reveals today, so painstakingly thorough were the preparations that:A replica of Westminster Hall was constructed in an aircraft hangar for dry runs of the lying-in-state.A special illuminated railway carriage was prepared with glass windows allowing mourners a glimpse of the coffin for if the Royal Train made the journey from Edinburgh to London, or from elsewhere.Lt Col Mather had to spy on the layout of Royal corridors – including at Prince Philip’s Sandringham cottage – to plan the movement of the Queen’s coffin.The carpets put down for the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall were tested to destruction by a man in boots with steel-tipped heels.

Lt Col Anthony Mather spent more than a decade drawing up ‘London Bridge’, the codename given to the arrangements for when the Queen died.Lt Col Mather worked alongside the Duke of Norfolk who, as Earl Marshal, has formal oversight of coronations and Royal funerals.

But it was Lt Col Mather who drew up the detailed plans for London Bridge. He led a team of 300 who met at least once a year to revise the Queen’s funeral plans and co-ordinate with courtiers.A former Grenadier Guard and a member of the Royal Household for some 26 years, Lt Col Mather started writing London Bridge in 1999, when the Queen was in her 70s – although never once spoke to her about it directly.