(Newser)
– Prince Philip was a big fan of Land Rovers and they will take him to his funeral in one of the ones he helped design. Buckingham Palace says the 99-year-old worked with Land Rover from 2003 on the modified vehicle, which has an open rear section designed to its specifications, Reuters reports. The palace says the modifications the prince designed include “plugs” to hold the coffin in place, the BBC reports. The prince, who served in the Royal Navy during World War II, also requested a repainting in a darker military green. The last changes were made in 2019. According to the Telegraph, once told his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, that he did not want a fancy funeral and said, “Stick me in the back of a Land Rover and drive me to Windsor.”
The prince died at Windsor Castle, and the Land Rover hearse will not make a long journey: it will be used to carry his coffin through the castle grounds to St George’s Chapel for Saturday’s funeral. Plans for a 22-mile journey from central London were withdrawn due to the pandemic. The number of bad guys will be limited to 30. It is unclear who will drive the Land Rover, although the queen would have little difficulty doing so: like Philip, she often drove Land Rovers and learned to drive and fix numerous military vehicles, including Land Rover’s predecessors, during his military service in World War II. (A potentially complicated situation with military uniforms for the funeral has been avoided).