Lady Mary Russell, one of\u00a0Queen Elizabeth\u2019s\u00a0maids of honour on her coronation day, died just one day before the late monarch\u2019s\u00a0state funeral\u00a0on September 19. She was 88.<\/p>\n
The Times<\/em>\u00a0obituary section reported the death, detailing that the wife and mother of five died \u201cpeacefully\u201d at home with her family on September 18. She and her husband, David, shared three sons, Anthony, Philip and Jason, and two daughters, Arabella and Mariana, as well as 12 grandchildren, according to the obituary.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth\u2019s\u00a0state funeral, held the next day at Westminster Abbey, welcomed more than 2,000 family members, guests and heads of state to pay their respects to Britain\u2019s longest-reigning monarch.<\/p>\n At just 19, Lady Russell was the youngest of six maids of honour in attendance at\u00a0Queen Elizabeth\u2019s coronation\u00a0at Westminster Abbey in 1953. The six ladies wore embroidered silver gowns with long silk gloves and tiaras as they held the Queen\u2019s six-yard train through Westminster Abbey.<\/p>\n Lady Russell\u2019s father, the Earl of Haddington, was a childhood friend of the Queen Mother from Scotland.<\/p>\n On the day,\u00a0Queen Elizabeth\u00a0wore a\u00a0white duchess satin dress\u00a0designed by Sir Norman Hartnell, the same designer who made her\u00a0wedding gown\u00a0in 1947 and designed her maids of honour\u2019s gowns.<\/p>\n The personal touches included \u2014 embroidered flowers to represent the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries \u2014 which were the product of\u00a0Queen Elizabeth\u2019s request. They added such weight to the gown that it is estimated to have weighed over 11 pounds.<\/p>\n Lady Russell recalled the tremendous weight of the gown, too, as though it was a distraction on the day.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was overwhelming and moving \u2013 especially during the anointing,\u201d Lady Russell\u00a0said\u00a0about the coronation. \u201cIt was an incredible moment, but all I could think about was how heavy the embroidery felt.\u201d<\/p>\n The honor of being selected as a maid of honor was not lost on Lady Russell. \u201cOf all the girls our age in the country, we six girls were chosen to carry the Queen\u2019s train and that meant a great deal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n One of her fellow maids of honor, Lady Anne Glenconner, told the BBC that the six ladies were \u201cthe Spice Girls of their time\u201d after holding such an important role in the coronation.<\/p>\n Lady Russell is the second of the six maids of honor to die, following Lady Moyra Campbell\u2019s death in 2020 at age 90. Lady Glenconner, Lady Jane Lacey, Baroness Willoughby de Eresby and Lady Rosemary Muir are still alive.<\/p>\n The spectacular coronation ceremony took place a full year after her father\u2019s unexpected death. After suffering from lung cancer and having one lung removed,\u00a0King George VI died\u00a0suddenly at home in 1952. It was later revealed that he died of coronary thrombosis.<\/p>\n Following his sudden death, arrangements were quickly underway to plan his daughter\u2019s coronation, though she ascended the throne more immediately.<\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth\u00a0was laid to rest earlier this month alongside her beloved father and mother in the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle. Instead of receiving her statue or a memorial with her name, the Queen reportedly wished to lie alongside her family.<\/p>\n Her sister\u00a0Princess Margaret\u00a0and her husband\u00a0Prince Philip\u00a0are also buried there.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had no wish to see a statue of herself or to even have a separate burial chamber within St. George\u2019s Chapel,\u201d historian Robert Hardman, author of Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II,\u00a0told PEOPLE. \u201cAs her cousin Margaret Rhodes once said to me, \u2018She wanted to make her father proud.’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Queen](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-233.png\" "\\"Queen")
![\"Queen](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-234.png\" "\\"Queen")
![\"Queen](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-235.png\" "\\"Queen")