When I heard the announcement I instinctively began crying in the way that I would being told someone I was close to had died. Even though everybody dies, and even though we knew she was 96, it has still come as a shock that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed away.
Like many people, I had never met her, although it’s impressive to note that she is estimated to have seen or met a third of the people in this country. I of course wish I had met her. I’d once been in the same room, but it was too big a room, there were too many people and I didn’t get close.
In meeting 2 members of her family – our new King, Charles III, at a charity event and our new Prince of Wales, Prince William, when receiving my OBE – I saw in them the values she had inculcated in her family. Over and over in the tributes that have been written you hear the same words, like sacrifice, dedication, selflessness and duty. Her Majesty personified such values.
We’ve heard often too about her passion for her family; for her country; for horse-racing; for her corgis. We’ve heard from many about her humour and sense of mischief – many people spoke of her twinkling eyes – and we saw that very clearly in her cameos at both the Olympics with James Bond and at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations with Paddington Bear.
I’m very pleased she was here for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Across the 4 towns and 64 villages I represent you saw the love that local people had for the Queen. There were far too many events and street parties for me to get to all of them, but those I did get to were full of warmth and admiration for our late Queen.
As I said in my tribute to the House of Commons, however good MPs think they are at attending events, opening and making visits, we all pale in comparison to the 70 years she spent doing these things. Not to mention that at one point she was patron of more than 600 charities.
We have lost the most impressive servant to our nation that we will ever see, and we should be forever thankful for what she has given us.
In my speech I closed from a quote from Winston Churchill, who of course only saw the first part of her reign. An early admirer, he said “All the film people in all the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part.” How right he was.
May she Rest In Peace. And God Save the King.
