One of the royal guards watching over the Queen’s coffin at Westminster Hall has suddenly collapsed.
The guard was standing at the foot of the late monarch’s casket when he suddenly fell to the floor.
Footage taken from a live broadcast which was posted to social media at around 1am captured the collapse.
The black-clad guard was holding a ceremonial staff when he appeared to faint, with nearby officials quickly rushing to his aid.
As he was tended to, the live vision quickly faded to exterior, night-time vision of the building. Over an hour later, the broadcast had still not returned to the scene inside the hall.
Soldiers in ceremonial uniform are maintaining a constant, 24-hour vigil around the Queen’s coffin while she is lying in state.
The guards from units which include the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London are required to remain completely still at the four corners of the catafalque.
While the soldiers rotate every 20 minutes, the hours of remaining completely still while standing are six-hours in length.
The incident happened on the first night of the Queen’s lying in state which gives members of the public the chance to pay their respects to the late monarch.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel