Queen's lying in state: Barrow scout's 'absolute honour to serve the Queen'

Liam Edgley travelled from Barrow to join fellow scouts at the queue for the Queen lying-in-state

A scout who volunteered to help the thousands of people who queued for the Queen's lying-in-state said it was an "absolute honour" to be involved.

Liam Edgley, 21, from Barrow, was the only member from Cumbria selected to travel to London to staff the event.

He joined a 120-strong team who worked across shifts to give out water and motivate the crowds while they waited.

"We promise to do our duty every day, every week to the Queen, it's part of the Scout's promise," he told people.

The volunteers, aged 18 to 25, helped those with accessibility needs and supported the 250,000 people who queued as long as 24 hours to see the Queen's coffin, which lay in state in Westminster Hall ahead of her funeral.

Liam was one of 120 scouts chosen to take part in volunteering at the event

Liam said about 500 people applied to take part and everyone was keen to "do their duty".

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He said he was "very fortunate" to be selected and since being stood down at 06:00 BST on Monday he, along with his fellow volunteers, had been coming to terms with the "magnitude" of what they had done.

The scouts helped boost morale and hand out water to people waiting for hours

"The whole experience has been absolutely surreal," he told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"There was no bigger way that we could fulfil our promise than being able to that.

"It was incredible to see such strong spirits in the members of the public."

Thousands queued along the Thames to pay their last respects to the Queen

He was also able to visit Westminster Hall and pay his own tribute to the Queen.

"As soon as you went in that hall it was silent, there was no sound at all, not even a whisper, every sound that was made was immediately swallowed up," he said.

"It really brought to scale the task that we had done throughout the week helping so many people getting through and seeing the Queen lying-in-state."