Princess Diana’s Funeral Part 23: The Hearse In Park Lane and Oxford Street
The Hearse continues its journey into Park Lane, past the edge of Hyde Park and Dodi Fayed’s apartment. The echo from the big TVs in the park can be heard on the soundtrack. It then turns into Oxford Street and shortly into Gloucester Place where it proceeds up towards Regents Park.
The three people in the Hearse are:
Sidney Clarke, driver. A Leverton’s employee, he was awarded the Royal Victoria Medal in the 1997/98 New Year Honours for his services on this day. He commented on receiving his award that the people who lined the route of the Hearse were very dignified despite showering it with flowers to the extent he had to use his windscreen wipers to see the road in front of him.
On the passenger side is an officer of the Metropolitan Police traffic branch. He was in radio contact with the police vehicles escorting the hearse. Sidney Clarke was instructed to do as the police officer said for the duration of the journey. He sat on the passenger side presumably as he might have had to get out quickly to attend to any adverse incident the hearse encountered on its journey. Fortunately however, the only time he did need to get out was to clear the flowers from the windscreen once the hearse reached the motorway.
In the middle is Keith Leverton, the co-owner with his brother Clive of the Undertakers to the Royal Family. Levertons has been a family run funeral business since the 18th century and their possession of the Royal Charter meant they also directed the funerals of Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother both, sadly, in Spring 2002.
The crowd begins to disperse in Hyde Park and the Mall after the hearse has passed.
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