Princess Margaret peacefully passed away at the age of 71 – and she made a poignant decision towards the end of her life that showed her absolute dedication to her family
The late Queen suffered great heartbreak in 2002 when her beloved sister and mother passed away just 49 days apart.
Buckingham Palace announced the news of Princess Margaret’s death on 9th February of that year, confirming she “died peacefully in her sleep this morning at 6.30am, in The King Edward VII Hospital. Her children, Lord Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, were at her side”.
The Palace added, “Princess Margaret suffered a further stroke yesterday afternoon. She developed cardiac problems during the night and was taken from Kensington Palace to The King Edward VII Hospital at 2.30am. Lord Linley and Lady Sarah were with her, and The Queen was kept fully informed throughout the night.”
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Margaret was 71 at the time of her passing but she had suffered a series of strokes in her later years, beginning in 1998. In 1999, while vacationing on her beloved Mustique, she burned her feet badly in a bath, which greatly impacted her mobility. And she made her last public appearance at Princess Alice’s 100th birthday party in December 2001.
Her coffin was placed in her bedroom at Kensington Palace, “surrounded by her favourite photographs, sea shells and other cherished artefacts”, according to Andrew Morton’s book Elizabeth & Margaret. The Queen visited for “a few solitary moments” to say her final goodbye.
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Margaret’s coffin, draped in her standard and adorned with a bouquet of white lilies and roses, was transported to the Queen’s Chapel at St James’s Palace, a twelve-minute journey led by Scottish pipers.
On the day of her funeral, 15 February, the Queen Mother was flown from Sandringham by helicopter and taken to St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in a wheelchair.
Margaret had carefully planned every aspect of the service, including the music, prayers and hymns. Her rose-coloured coffin rested at the altar as the organist played melodies from Swan Lake – a touching tribute to her love of ballet.
After the service, the Queen Mother, with ‘great difficulty,’ managed to rise to her feet in a final, sorrowful acknowledgment of her daughter.
Mr Morton noted that the Queen was deeply affected by the loss of her sister: “As the coffin was placed into the hearse, one hand gripped that of her niece, Sarah Chatto, the other brushed away a tear,” he wrote.
“Out of the stillness came the sound of a Scottish lament, Desperate Battle of the Birds, chosen by Margaret’s daughter. It served as a metaphor for her tumultuous life, so full of promise and glamour yet dwindling into loneliness and despondency.”
It was Margaret’s final wish to be cremated – the only way she could rest alongside her father at St George’s Chapel, as there was no space left in the royal crypt.
“Princess Margaret was cremated, one of the first members of the royal family, because she wanted to be buried between her parents and there was only room, really, for ashes,” Lady Glenconner, a lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret, explained in the documentary Elizabeth: Our Queen.
She was cremated at Slough Crematorium, becoming the first royal in 60 years not to be buried. Her final resting place is Windsor Castle’s King George VI Memorial Chapel, along with her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and as 2022, her older sister, Queen Elizabeth II.