Britain's royal family closed its door on the world for a time yesterday for the intensely private funeral service for Princess Margaret.Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother (101), led a 400-strong congregation of family, friends and staff as they paid their final respects to the princess at the service in Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, before her cremation - attended at the princess's request only by staff of the royal households - at Slough Crematorium.
Despite continuing fears for her health, the Queen Mother had been determined to say farewell to her younger daughter, whose funeral, by coincidence, took place 50 years to the day after the burial of her husband - and Princess Margaret's father - King George VI.
Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales and his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were among the principal mourners in a congregation, including more than 30 royals spanning four generations, gathered in tribute to the woman who was born to a duke and duchess, was originally destined for a life of obscurity on the outer fringes of royalty, and who then for a time stood second-in-line to the British throne. Also there to say goodbye were the Duke of York; the Earl and Countess of Wessex; the Princess Royal and Commodore Timothy Laurence, and Peter and Zara Phillips; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Earl of Ulster; Lady Davina Windsor and Lady Rose Windsor; the Duke and Duchess of Kent; the Earl and Countess of St Andrews; Lord Nicholas Windsor; Prince and Princess Michael of Kent; Lord Frederick Windsor; Princess Alexandra and Sir Angus Ogilvy.
The music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake filled the chapel as the congregation assembled.
Then eight sergeants from the 1st Battalion Royal Highland Fusiliers, carried her coffin - wrapped in her personal royal standard and bearing a wreath of pink tulips and white roses from the Queen Mother - to the catafalque in the choir of the chapel.
Silence fell, then, as Queen Elizabeth and other senior royals entered alongside Lord Snowdon, the princess's former husband, and their children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto.
The choir sang the 23rd Psalm, The Lord is My Shepherd, and Lord Linley read the lesson from Romans 8. This was was followed by the hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise. The Dean of Windsor, the Right Rev David Conner, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, officiated. The canon-in-residence, Canon Barry Thompson, offered up the prayer: "Eternal God we remember before thee this day thy servant Margaret, rendering thanks to thee; for her loyalty and sense of duty; for her energy and her enthusiasm; for her quick wit and sound advice; for her depth of knowledge and her love of life "
After the second hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, the dean commended the princess's soul: "When we come to the end, therefore, let us commend our spirits to God our redeemer in faith.."
Dr Carey concluded the service with the final blessing: "Enter my heart, O Holy Spirit, come in blessed mercy and set me free O Holy Spirit, very God, whose presence is liberty, grant me the perfect freedom to be thy servant today, tomorrow, evermore."
Trumpeters from the Hussars and Light Dragoons sounded the Last Post and then Reveille, then the bearer party carried the coffin to the chapel's west door followed by the main royal party.
At its steps a piper played a melancholy lament, its bitter-sweet title perhaps intended as a metaphor for the sometimes troubled life of the departed princess: The Desperate Struggle of the Bird.