100 years ago last week Queen Victoria made her final journey through Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport. A century on, dozens of people remember the death of a popular monarch. NINA MARSHALL reports

A HUSH descended on the Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport to mark 100 years since the body of Queen Victoria made a final journey through the town.

Dozens of people braved the gloom and rain to watch a procession led by a single piper from HMS Sultan, which was followed by naval cadets, local clergy, civic leaders and school children.

A short ceremony at the Royal Clarence yard on Friday morning saw hymns and prayers, and cadets from the HMS Dolphin volunteer cadet corp pulled guns to mark a minute's silence.

The Rural Dean of Gosport told the crowd: "We are not here to re-enact that event, but to remember a great queen, and to honour the memory of all those assembled here at this place 100 years ago this morning."

Watching the procession were two classes of six- and seven-year-olds from Newtown Primary School, whose pupils witnessed the original ceremony a century ago.

Children at the event were dressed in traditional Victorian costumes and had spent weeks preparing for the big day at school.

Samantha Breeze, seven, said: "We have been talking about Queen Victoria at school so I am very excited. I'm wearing a floral dress today because its what children wore a hundred years ago."

Sea Cadet Dan Byrne, 14, said: "It is nice to be part of this, to mark 100 years since Queen Victoria's death."

Queen Victoria passed through Gosport many times on the way to her much loved Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, even having a train station built in the Royal Clarence yard to make the journey easier.

After her death on January 22 1901, her body lay in state for ten days before being transferred on the royal yacht Alberta from the Isle of Wight to Gosport.

On the morning of February 2 1901, she started her final journey from Gosport to London where crowds 60 people deep lined the route.

And at 8.45am on Friday, exactly 100 years later, it was again pouring with rain as The Last Post rang out, played to mark the exact time her train left the station.