Snubbed

No one from the royal family is coming to Sir Ed's state funeral.

THE QUEEN: Has nothing scheduled for Tuesday in the official royal diary.

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The absence of any member of the royal family at Sir Ed Hillary's funeral on Tuesday has been labelled a snub to one of the great heroes of the British Empire.

Sir Ed's successful ascent of Mt Everest in 1953 was heralded as a triumph for Britain.

The announcement of the success of the British-led expedition was delayed four days to coincide with the coronation of the Queen on June 2.

The front page of the Daily Mail that day reported: "Nature's greatest prize belongs to the Queen this coronation morning."

Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed yesterday that she and Governor-General Anand Satyanand would represent the Queen "both officially and personally" at the funeral of Sir Ed, one of only 24 Knights of the Garter appointed by the monarch.

The Queen has offered the Hillary family a memorial service at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on a date in April yet to be determined.

A spokeswoman for Miss Clark's office said Lady Hillary was closely involved in the planning of the funeral and that she was happy with the arrangements.

The Queen's offer of a memorial service at Windsor Castle was "very unusual and quite rare" and a mark of the respect the 81-year-old monarch held for Sir Ed.

The chairman of the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand, Lewis Holden, said members were disappointed by the royal no-show.

It took Sir Ed and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay 81 days to walk from the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu to the summit of Everest - yet the "tyranny of distance" meant the royal family could not spare 24 hours to fly to New Zealand.

"This national day of mourning is the sort of occasion where the presence of New Zealand's head of state would be appropriate," Mr Holden said.

"The absence of the royal family shows plainly they are not able to do the job for New Zealand. We don't think the Queen is doing a bad job - she's just doing the wrong job."

Only a New Zealand head of state could "appropriately express the feelings of the New Zealand people".

However, Monarchist League of New Zealand chairman Noel Cox said he would have been surprised if a royal had attended.

"To my knowledge, no member of the royal family has ever officially attended the funeral of someone who was not a head of state or the spouse of a head of state.

"The fact it was even considered was a single and remarkable honour."

The important thing was the Queen had recognised Sir Ed's contribution during his lifetime by making him a Knight of the Garter, Dr Cox said. "It's actually very difficult to shuffle the royal diary at short notice."

Prince Edward attended the state funeral of former prime minister and governor-general Sir Keith Holyoake in 1983.

Prince Charles attended prime minister Norm Kirk's state funeral in 1974. He flew out of Wellington on a Royal Air Force VC10 that night.