The Queen's funeral: Sense of duty - and shock - as young sailors from HMS Collingwood prepare to bear the Queen's coffin to her state funeral

Sailors and staff at the naval base in Fareham have spent four days undergoing gruelling 12-hour drills on the parade square in preparation for their role in the state funeral on Monday.

A team of more than 130 sailors will pull and escort a two-and-a-half tonne gun carriage that will bear Her Majesty from Westminster Hall - where she is lying in state - to the funeral service in Westminster Abbey, and then on to Wellington Arch, at Hyde Park Corner.

The Navy’s State Ceremonial Team underwent a range of emotions after the Queen’s death, according to the team’s leader, Captain Catherine Jordan.

Capt Jordan, who will lead the crew and coffin across the one-and-a-half mile journey, said: 'There absolutely is a mix of emotions. People understand the task that is ahead and how serious it is. But they are highly motivated. They know what this means, they know the significance. They want to get this right. They want to do their duty for someone who has done her duty for such a long time.

‘We are putting them in the best position to do their very best.’

The captain acknowledged that walking a mile-and-a-half – while bearing the weight of a monarch that has a nation in mourning - is 'quite a long way.'

She said: ‘I have to keep up with the band in front of me. They will be beating out the pace, 75 beats a minute.’

Confident in her team, she added: ‘There will be no-one falling down.’

Manning the gun carriage will place the crew in a tradition that stretches back more than 120 years, when the ordnance carriage was first used to carry Queen Victoria’s coffin to her funeral, before being used at the state funeral for subsequent monarchs and former prime minister Winston Churchill.

Alongside the gun carriage crew will be more than 40 Royal Navy personnel lining the route, ready to offer the late monarch one final Royal Salute.

Among them will be Able Seaman Murray Kerr, who said he can scarcely believe that he will have a role in a historic occasion - just seven months into his Royal Navy training.

The 20-year-old from Scotland said: 'If someone had told me a year ago I would be preparing for this - I wouldn't have believed them. I would have laughed and said there's far more qualified people.

‘Now, I'm nowhere near the person I was when I joined the navy. Even on Thursday, I didn’t think I can do this.

‘Now I have this responsibility to give something back to a woman who gave her whole life to this country, who was essentially my boss.’

When the young sailors at HMS Collingwood were gathered together earlier this week and informed of their upcoming responsibilities, they were asked if any wished to be excused - and not a single hand went up, according to Murray.

The support of the community from Gosport to Portsmouth has meant a huge amount to the young Royal Navy sailor.

He said: ‘Here is as much home to me as home in Scotland.

‘Pompey is home.’

Murray will be joined in London by fellow Able Seaman Ryan Howarth, who has also been in the service for just seven months.

The 25-year-old said: ‘I’m deeply honoured. I’m very shocked that such a short time into my career I'm already doing something like this. It's a big honour.

He added: ‘It’s been non-stop. People have been trying to get in contact to ask how things are, and I can't tell them anything.’

‘We’ve got this - as the Royal Navy always will. The navy has got this under control.’

Warrant Officer Darren ‘Eddie’ Wearing MBE, the State Ceremonial Training Officer, said preparations were ‘definitely on track’.

The training officer said: ‘The preparations have been going well, I'm really pleased.

‘I just feel that all they need to do is do their duty to best the of their ability - and no one can ask any more of them than that.’

He added: 'Everyone is feeling a sense of loss. We're all feeling it. The Royal Family, I'm sure, will know the world is grieving with them.

‘Every single TV set on the planet is probably going to be on - and that's how people will support us on the day.’

Among the drills for the State Ceremonial Team is a midnight rehearsal on the deserted streets of London.

Rear Admiral Jude Terry, director of people and training at the Royal Navy, has been overseeing the Navy's contribution to the funeral, a duty that was ‘an immense honour’ - if slightly frustrated by a common British grumble.

Rear Admiral Terry said: ‘We were almost undone by M3 roadworks - but we have managed to avoid that. Getting 1,000 Royal Navy personnel including the Royal Fleet Auxillary and the Royal Marines all in one place is difficult.

‘I have a great team here. All of this is about us saying thank you to the Queen for her service. All of us having been working for her throughout our careers. The State Gun Carriage Team is an enormous privilege.

‘For me, it's an immense honour to serve the lady I have served for 20 years one last time.’

The ceremony will be the third and final meeting of the rear admiral and the monarch.

She said: ‘I met the Queen twice. It was a real privilege… the way she interacted with the families of our sailors and understood who they were and where they had been and what they were doing.’

The Queen's coffin will make its final journey from central London to Windsor Castle by hearse.