U.K

Diary entry reveals Queen’s final moments before death

Author: Editors Desk Source: News Corp Australia Network:

January 15, 2024 at 06:15

The Queen’s private secretary dutifully recorded every moment of the monarch’s life – including the final moments before her death.

The Queen passed away peacefully.

The late monarch’s final moments were recorded by her devoted private secretary Sir Edward Young reports the Daily Mail.

“Very peaceful,” Young wrote. “In her sleep. Slipped away. Old age. She wouldn’t have been aware of anything. No pain.”

The document was lodged in the Royal Archives and has not been made public until now.

Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8 2022 at the age of 96 at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

The Queen in late June 2022, just over two months before her death. Picture: POOL / AFP

Royal expert Katie Nicholl told Page Six exclusively in September 2022 that it was always the Queen’s wish to die at Balmoral.

Elizabeth’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Shakerley told Nicholl in a 2020 interview that the Scottish estate was where the late Queen felt most at peace.

According to The National Records of Scotland, she died from “old age.”

The note, along with other fascinating details surrounding the royal’s death is included in Robert Hardman’s upcoming book, Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story.

The royal reporter writes that her eldest son, Charles had sat with his mother for an hour, along with his wife Camilla, and then had gone out alone to forage mushrooms and clear his head.

Meeting Scotland's First Minister in what would be her final months as Queen. Picture: AFP

The Queen’s private secretary dutifully recorded all aspects of her life. Picture: AFP

He received the news that she had died as he was driving back to Balmoral Castle.

Others who were by the Queen’s bedside included Princess Anne and the Queen’s senior dresser and trusted confidante, Angela Kelly, along with the Rev Kenneth MacKenzie, a minister, who read to her from the Bible.

After her death, a footman brought a locked red box of paperwork found by her deathbed.

In it, were two sealed letters: one to her son and heir, Charles, and the other, addressed to Young.

The box also contained her final royal order: her choice of candidates for the prestigious Order of Merit for ‘exceptionally meritorious service’ across the Commonwealth.

“Even on her deathbed, there had been work to do. And she had done it,” Hardman writes of the Queen’s legendary work ethic.

This story originally appeared on Page Six and is republished here with permission.