'The Queen passed by and there was this deathly silence...until I broke royal protocol': Man's meeting with monarch at palace

9Honey's Royal Reporter Natalie Oliveri reporting from outside Buckingham Palace in The Mall during the Queen's procession to Westminster.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a steady stream of people started trickling into The Mall.

It would be many hours before the day's events would begin but it was testament to the late Queen Elizabeth's impact that crowds would wait more than eight hours to see her cortège pass by.

Across the city, long queues were already in place to see the Queen's coffin lying in state at Westminster.

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But before then, the late monarch was to make a final journey from Buckingham Palace, her official London residence for 70 years.

Overnight rain and cool conditions did not deter he people.

One of those who got here very early was Paul Griffiths. He had prime position in the front row along the famous Mall. 

The Welsh-born Griffiths met the late monarch at a Buckingham Palace garden party six years ago, an occasion he described as "an amazing day" and "very emotional".

It was these fond memories, and a family love of the royal family despite their Welsh roots, that brought Griffiths to London today.

"As the royal family was leaving, we were all lined up by the swimming pool, the Queen passed by and there was this deathly silence," Griffiths told me.

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"Everyone was petrified of saying anything but I knew that would be the only chance I would ever have.

"So I just blurted out 'happy birthday' and she just stopped.

"She turned and looked at me and said 'thank you' and carried on.

"For days afterwards I was kicking myself because I didn't even say 'Your Majesty' or Ma'am' or anything like that.

"But I was so proud that I did that because it helped her and it helped the crowd that were there to break this protocol. And I think she liked, or I hope she liked that direct contact with her subjects."

Griffiths remembers the Queen looking "so beautiful, so petite".

"You notice things like her shoes, her handbag, I felt she was a bit nervous, her hands were terribly moving all the time.

"And another thing I never noticed before was how ginger her eyebrows were, which is something which has stayed with me.

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"I know people refer to the ginger hair with Prince Harry, but you see that it's in the royal family line. And that was something that really stayed with me."

Griffiths proudly displayed the Welsh flag attached to the fence that separated mourners from The Mall, keen to show his support for the new Prince of Wales.

Speaking about Prince William's inheritance of the title from his father Charles, Griffiths said William would do the country proud.

"It's obviously a very controversial subject at the moment – a lot of people in Wales are not happy, they don't think he should be the Prince of Wales," he said.

But for Griffiths, "it's just a title, it's part of history, it's a continuation of the history of the country".

"For me, my parents were very supportive of the royal family, my family have always celebrated it.

"Deep down a lot of Welsh people are secretly supportive of the monarchy. I am here, literally, for my parent's memory. And it's living history, I wanted to be here."