SINGAPORE - Mr Mark Soh and his family were prepared for a long wait to get to pay their last respects to the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew at Parliament House on March 25, but they didn't mind.

Three hours into their wait, an army officer noticed the group of six and moved them up to the top of the queue because they had with them two children - two-year-old Emma, who was in a pram, and eight-year-old Matthew. He reckoned that saved them an hour.

The group had started queueing at 3.30pm from St Andrew's Cathedral.

Mr Soh, 44, said: "It was worth the long wait. Mr Lee did a lot for the country and we should celebrate his success. Even if Emma is too young to know who he is."

The family added that everyone was very patient in the queue. Even though some people cut the queue, people did not seem to mind, he said.

Seven undergraduates from the Singapore Institute of Management joined the long queues at about 3pm on Wednesday. They finally entered Parliament House at about 7pm - after four hours in the queue.

"We are here to pay our respects. He's the founder of Singapore. Without him we won't be here today," said Mr Chen Chee Ming, 26.

The waiting time was as long as eight hours at one point, but that did not deter them. "By the time we heard about the eight-hour queue, we were here already, so we decided to wait," said Mr Chen.

In the end, they had to stand in line for less than the eight hours.