The 1st Volunteer Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders Detachment for Queen Victoria's funeral, 2 February, 1901. The 1st Volunteer Battalion was headquartered at Woolman Hill, Aberdeen. It consisted of ten companies, all stationed at Aberdeen. Queen Victoria’s funeral took place on 2 February 1901. After 63 years on the throne, Victoria died at the age of 81 at Osborne House on The Isle of Wight. Her military state funeral was held in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. Prior to her death on 22 January 1901 Queen Victoria had written instructions for her funeral, which was to be military as befitting a soldier’s daughter and the head of the army. Though she had worn black since her husband Albert’s death in 1861, she requested that she be dressed in white for her funeral and burial. On 25 January, Edward VII, the Kaiser and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, helped lift her into the coffin. She was dressed in a white dress and her wedding veil. An array of mementos commemorating her extended family, friends and servants were laid in the coffin with her, at her request, by her doctor and dressers. One of Albert’s dressing gowns was placed by her side, with a plaster cast of his hand, while a lock of John Brown’s hair, along with a picture of him, were placed in her left hand concealed from the view of the family by a carefully positioned bunch of flowers. Items of jewellery placed on Victoria included the wedding ring of John Brown’s mother, given to her by Brown in 1883. After the funeral her coffin lay-in-state in The Albert Memorial Chapel for two days and was then taken to The Mausoleum by The Royal Horse Artillery. Her son, Edward, had been proclaimed King Edward VII.