Plans are in the works for a memorial service in Victoria commemorating Queen Elizabeth II.
Christ Church Cathedral is working on a ceremony and service for local dignitaries and Vancouver Island residents to pay their respects to the monarch.
Details on the date and what the service will look like are yet to be released.
Gene Fedderly, with the Monarchist League of Canada’s Victoria branch, believes it will be a big ceremony with music, tradition and pageantry.
“My understanding is there will be a naval procession from the Legislature to Christ Church Cathedral,” Fedderly said. “That’ll be followed by dignitaries from the province and then there will be a memorial service in Christ Church.”
He added this is a rare event and expects a big crowd attending the service.
The last funeral for a queen in Victoria happened in 1901 after Queen Victoria passed away. Photos from City of Victoria Archives show line-ups of people outside the B.C. Legislature.
Victoria’s memorial service for Queen Victoria in 1901. Image M09478 courtesy of City of Victoria Archives.
Victoria’s memorial service for Queen Victoria in 1901. Image M00258 courtesy of City of Victoria Archives.
Associate professor of history at the University of Victoria, Simon Devereaux, said he would not expect the same sorts of crowds there were back in 1901.
Devereaux said the demographic of people who consider themselves to have a “royalist outlook” has gotten older and younger generations tend to not follow the Royal Family as intensely.
“Not least of all because we are so much more in attuned to the First Peoples whose lands we basically live and work upon now,” he added.
Fedderly said he believes the service could still draw in people of all ages and groups because most people alive haven’t experienced this type of service.
“To see a ceremony live is much more personal and I think it’s a way to say goodbye to our monarch who served us so faithfully for seven decades,” Fedderly added.
He speculated the service in Victoria would happen on Sept. 19, the same day as the ceremony in London.
Christ Church Cathedral told CHEK News more details on the plans and date of the ceremony should be released later in the week.
Mackenzie Read
