Queen Elizabeth II lying in state: Yorkshire man tells of 'a night I'll never forget' queueing to see The Queen

Alex Green, 38, left work on Thursday evening (Sep 15) to travel down to London from Harrogate to wait in the queue to see Her Majesty.

“A night I’ll never forget,” said Mr Green, who wanted to pay his respects.

He said it was “a very sleepless night,” after waiting in the queue to Southwark Park where he joined thousands of other mourners.

Architect Mr Green, who queued to join the main queue, ended up missing his morning train home to work as he faced further delays due to the queue being paused for a funeral rehearsal to take place.

“People saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to pay their respects. It was all very respectful,” he added. “I met a Mexican family who had flown in from Mexico City to join the queue. I helped them find the queue entry.”

Mr Green waited 10 hours overnight along the River Thames to get to the park in what he described as a “very well organised queue.”

While he had a scenic wait seeing key landmarks lit up in purple, when he got to the park his hopes of being close to the end were dashed when he realised the queue snaked 50 times.

Mr Green said: “A very different ‘all nighter’ but well worth the 10 hour queue to say goodbye to our beloved Queen.”

He then headed back to work in Yorkshire before vowing to return for the Queen’s funeral.