‘She was the world’s queen’: crowds pay respects to Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle

Mourners lay flowers and hand-written cards for monarch who kept royal family going through thick and thin'

At Windsor Castle on Friday, crowds gathered just outside the grounds with many people laying flowers and hand-written cards by theKing Henry VIII gate. Among them was Beryl McAvoy, 81, from Ealing, who had come to the same spot 25 years ago to lay flowers after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Thinking of the Queen, she was simply beautiful," McAvoy says. She's always been there for everybody. It seems strange that she is not here any more. It's been a long time."