DATE=03/31/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=BRITAIN/QUEEN MUM (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-288192

BYLINE=TOM RIVERS

DATELINE=LONDON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Members of Britain's royal family gathered at Windsor to mourn the Queen Mother, who died on Saturday at the age of 101. Tom Rivers reports from outside the front gate of the famous castle west of London.

TEXT: Inside Windsor's impressive walls, the royals are grieving. It is their time to mourn in private. Here outside the front gate, a few hundred ordinary Britons have gathered to pay their respects to the woman known affectionately as the "Queen Mum," the grandmother to the nation.

/// VOXPOP ACT ///

I am really upset. Really, really upset. She has been around for so long, everybody identified with her whether you are young or been through the war, really old. Everybody knows the Queen Mum. Everybody loves the Queen Mum. /// It is always sad to lose a beloved person and she was very popular and even abroad, even in other countries. So, it was very sad to hear.

/// END ACT ///

Among visitors from overseas here, I caught up with this couple from Pennsylvania, in the eastern United States.

/// AMERICAN COUPLE ACT ///

I am sure it was expected, but it is still something to be somber about. /// It

was very crowded and somber.

/// END ACT ///

That feeling is reflected in the cold, gray skies above.

Britain is now officially in mourning for the next nine days. The British Union flag is flying at half-staff atop all public buildings in

the country.

Next week, the Queen Mother's coffin will be moved to Westminster Hall in the heart of London where she will lie in state. It is there where many members of the public will pay their final respects.

Following the funeral, her body will be returned to Windsor Castle where she will be laid to rest next to her husband, King George the Sixth in St.

George's chapel. (Signed)

NEB/TR/ALW/FC