Solemn funeral held for Princess Margaret, followed by her cremation

Friday, February 15th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WINDSOR, England (AP) _ Princess Margaret, a royal who often went her own way, was laid to rest Friday at a ceremony befitting a commoner _ a private family funeral, followed by a cremation.

As flags flew at half-staff across Britain, members of the royal family attended the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, 50 years after Margaret and Elizabeth's father, King George VI, was buried nearby.

The service, complete with trumpeters, a piper, a choir, and an organ playing pieces from Tchaikovsky's ``Swan Lake,'' was private.

However, a subdued crowd of nearly 3,000 _ including many reporters, photographers and camera crews _ gathered outside the gates, and people across Britain watched live television coverage of the solemn event.

In a prayer, the Rev. Canon Barry Thompson thanked God for Margaret's ``faithfulness toward her family and friends, for her energy and enthusiasm, for her quick wit and sound advice, for her depth of knowledge and her love of life.''

The 101-year-old Queen Mother, who flew to Windsor by helicopter from the royal estate in Sandringham on Thursday, attended the service, despite cutting her arm in a fall the day before. That, and a long-standing chest infection, prevented her from joining the processions at the service.

In all, about 450 people, including more than 30 royals, attended the afternoon funeral. The princess's rose-covered coffin was shrouded in her red, blue and gold-colored personal standard.

``We think the princess was a forgotten person, really, and we've come here to show the world she's not forgotten,'' said John Bradford of Windsor, who said he was 71, the same age as Margaret when she died Feb. 9.

The principal mourners were Margaret's children, Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto, along with the queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Margaret's former husband, the Earl of Snowdon.

In a departure from royal tradition at her request, Margaret was cremated following the funeral at nearby Slough Crematorium, with no friends or family members present. She is one of the few descendants of Queen Victoria to have chosen cremation.

Her ashes were to be placed in the Royal Vault at St. George's Chapel, the church where her father was buried Feb. 16, 1952.

``The one that makes me ache today a lot is the Queen Mother,'' said Jessie Evans, 79, who was outside the castle. ``She has had to come today to say goodbye to her daughter. I think also that the queen will be very, very lonely after today because the Queen Mother won't be long behind her daughter.''

Margaret Rose Bedford, 71, who worked as a housemaid at Windsor Castle from 1961 to 1963, said she cried when she heard of the princess' death. But she remembered Margaret as a formidable figure.

``She was a very nice, very controlled person, who always had a disdainful expression,'' Bedford said. ``You had to look the other way if you came face-to-face with her _ on her instructions, or get told off by my boss.''

The princess, high-spirited and unconventional in her youth, had always remained close to the queen despite their different characters. They and their mother were said to have spoken to each other daily by telephone.

Well-publicized upheavals in Princess Margaret's life did not seem to undermine that closeness.

Her love as a young woman for Peter Townsend _ a divorced man _ made headlines around the world. The church objected to a marriage and so did the government at a time when divorce was seen as shameful, and the princess decided not to marry him.

Yet Margaret became the first senior royal to divorce, in 1978, when her 18-year marriage to the Earl of Snowdon _ photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones _ was dissolved. The marriage, troubled for some time, came apart after published photos of the princess showed her with Roddy Llewellyn, a man 17 years her junior. The two were romantically linked for half a dozen years.

Margaret did not remarry.

She lived in an apartment at Kensington Palace in London and enjoyed close relationships with her two children, who have no official royal role and have succeeded in living quietly and apparently happily outside the limelight.