IT was a simple request, but one that touched all those who heard it.

The young woman, a child clinging to each hand, urged those in the momentous queue lining the River Thames to pay her respects to the late Queen Mother on her behalf. "I would have loved to queue with you," she said, "But with work and the kids it's difficult. I know it sounds silly but pay her my respects, will you?"

It did not sound silly to those waiting the estimated five hours to file past the coffin for the last few hours that the Queen Mother lay in state at Westminster Hall.

To Pat Measures, who had taken her place in the queue for the second time in two days, it seemed the most natural and heartwarming request in the world.

The 38-year-old had travelled down from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, because as she put it, "It was something she just had to do".

Yesterday it was the turn of her mother Anne to go inside, and Pat was happy to keep her place in the queue for her.

She said: "When we arrived we were told it was going to be a 12-hour wait, but as it turned out it was just five and a half. I would have waited twice as long.

"Inside it was absolutely spectacular, it was just magnificent - you can't believe she's actually in there. "I came down for three of her birthdays and I was in front of the palace gates for her 100th birthday.

"But I was amazed at the numbers of pushchairs and young people in the queue." Even those who had come prepared for the wait, with foldaway chairs, packed lunches and flasks, seemed amazed by the length and diversity of the queue.

Predictions that only people who remembered the Queen Mother from the war years would mark the occasion have been proved spectacularly wrong.

One man commented to the women queueing next to him that it "This proves the media wrong, which is nice," and a passer-by said it was something you were more likely to see at Alton Towers.

After the third of fourth person asked if it was the queue for the London Eye it became apparent that that was the joke of the day.

Everyone took it in good humour. Sixteen-year-old Jamie Harris from Ealing said he wanted to be there because it was such a big occasion. He said: "I'm not a really big fan of the Royal family but it was definitely worth coming."

Royalist Ann Graydon, 61, travelled to the capital from her home in Newcastle. She said: "I took half a day off when Princess Diana came and opened the bridge in Newcastle and I waited from 8am until she arrived - but it was worth it because she came over and spoke to us. You don't forget things like that. "If I was still working today I would have taken time off to come here. There was no way I wasn't going to be here."

Updated: 10:08 Tuesday, April 09, 2002