Well-wishers from Sussex were among the 250,000 who lined London's streets today for the Queen Mother's pre-funeral procession.

Some camped overnight, others began arriving at dawn to secure a good view of the horse-drawn gun carriage bearing the Queen Mother's coffin from St James's Palace to lie in state at Westminster Hall.

At the heart of today's historic half-mile procession, involving 1,600 servicemen and women, princes William and Harry were paying tribute to their great-grandmother.

With 12 other senior members of the Royal Family, the teenage princes walked behind the Queen Mother's coffin in the cortge.

Among the crowds was student teacher Susie Busbridge, 35, from Crawley, who had been up all night with her five children, camping in The Mall under sleeping bags and blankets.

She said: "I think there's a lot of sympathy for the Queen, though we wanted to be here, and the girls wanted to see Prince William.

"The Queen Mum has never let the side down, while the younger generation have been a bit of a disaster.

"That she had to go through the abdication crisis and then see the Royal family suffer in the Nineties must have been quite awful for her."

Her eight-year-old son Michael said: "She was very nice even when she was not very well."

His sister Samantha, 11, and Cian, four, were huddled under a tree in The Mall underneath a thin blanket.

Older sisters Terri-Anne, 16, and Stephanie, 15, said they were looking forward to seeing princes William and Harry, and also wanted to pay tribute to the Queen Mother's long and eventful life.

"Until she had died and I saw all those documentaries about her I didn't realise what she had done in her life. She had always been the Queen Mum and that was it," said Terri-Anne.

Also there was Jennifer Hawkins, from Worthing, who camped on the pavement outside the Palace of Westminster.

Only last August she camped out on the pavement all night outside Clarence House to be one of the first to wish the Queen Mother a happy 101st birthday.

A loving message from the Queen to her mother brought a human touch to today's procession.

A card on top of the Queen Mother's coffin read simply: "In loving memory, Lilibet".

Shortly before 11.30am the coffin, draped in her personal standard and surmounted by her diamond-encrusted crown, was carried from the Queen's Chapel at St James's Palace and placed on a horse-drawn gun carriage.

The royal mourners stood in perfect silence for several minutes awaiting the signal to move off on the stroke of 11.30am.

A military band played as the half-mile long procession made its way down The Mall, the crown atop the coffin sparkling in the spring sunshine.

To the strains of Beethoven's Funeral March, and as the first of 28 rounds of a 28-gun royal salute was fired - one for every minute of the procession - the Queen Mother's stately cortege began its journey to Westminster Hall.

Crowds in Horse Guards Road, leading into Horse Guards Parade were at times 12 deep as the procession passed.

The Queen Mother's coffin passed the cenotaph at 11.52am.

There was a ripple of applause and then the crowd of several thousand people fell silent as the gun carriage carrying the coffin entered Parliament Square.

The coffin was saluted by an honour guard as it turned into New Palace Yard at the Houses of Parliament as Big Ben chimed noon.

At Westminster Hall, members of the armed forces who had accompanied the coffin saluted as it was lifted down from the gun carriage.

The coffin was carried slowly through the North Door of Westminster Hall, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Queen stepped outside the hall to join the Duke of Edinburgh at the head of a procession of royals who followed the coffin inside.

Crowds lining the streets burst into spontaneous applause as the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the royal family drove away after a short ceremony.

The Queen Mother's body will lie-in-state until her funeral service at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, and private committal service and interment in the George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor later that day.

Tuesday's funeral is expected to be witnessed by a congregation of 2,100, including up to 25 foreign royals and heads of state, and surviving celebrities from the Queen Mother's era.