Taunton family lay 70 bunches of flowers at Queen's memorial

Russell White, his daughter Brooke White, his fiancée Gemma McCormack and her children Rosie & Faith McCormack laid the flowers at the memorial on Sunday, September 11.

The flowers were in part paid for by the family and in part donated by Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Asda stores in Taunton.

When asked why they felt the need to do this, Russell White told the County Gazette: "We love the Queen, it really is as simple as that.

"I have adored her for some time, in every aspect of her life she has been amazing, she has done so much for our country and I felt like I had to pay tribute to her."

"No one could ever do a better job than our Queen herself it is such a shame that she has sadly has passed away, she will never be forgotten & most certainly always be in our hearts everywhere we go."

The flowers in the bathtub.

The family set off early in the morning on Sunday after soaking the flowers in their bathtub overnight.

Mr White added: "There were so many flowers so we kept them in our bathtub overnight, when we got to London the girls kept saying 'how are we going to carry them all?'"

"However we managed and we carried them to the memorial. People were looking and taking pictures of us on our walk through the city.

"It was really special to get to lay them at the memorial, we all got very emotional when we got there."

Russell White laying the flowers.

The family wanted to thank the staff at each of the stores that help to donate the flowers.

Mr White said: "I need to thank the shops that donated some flowers to us, they helped with our goal to do this."

As well as laying the flowers, the family were on hand to catch a glimpse of the new King as he left the palace.

Amongst the crowds, they watched him leave the palace, get into a car a drive past them.

"To make the day even more special we managed to catch a glimpse of King Charles as he came out of the palace," Mr White added.