Obituary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

The Queen: A Life Splendorously Lived - 10 September 2022

Words cannot begin to estimate the immensity of the impression that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II left on us in her extraordinary seventy-year reign. Her Majesty ruled the nation for longer than the majority of its people today have been alive. The constancy of her presence was a benefit beyond measure to us all.

With that constancy, so many knew Her Majesty for her warmth, presence, and charm. No matter your background, your class or your creed, Her Majesty had a kind word for all and bad blood with none. So rare was her ability to touch the heart of any person, subject or not, she was so often hailed as the greatest ambassador for the United Kingdom on the global stage.

Born 21st April 1926 in London, Her Majesty was the elder daughter of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI) and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. Being the child of the younger son of King George V, there was little prospect that Her Majesty would accede to the throne. It was the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII that propelled her father to the throne, thus she became heir presumptive on 11th December 1936. It was that time out of the spotlight of the royal frontrunners, we believe, where Her Majesty began to learn the quiet and wholehearted acceptance of duty above all.

Because her parents were so often away, Her Majesty and her sister Princess Margaret spent a long time with her grandparents on the Sandringham Estate. The then King George V liked to have her at his side at breakfast and would show her his favourite horses at the Royal Stud. From her childhood onwards, she was lauded in celebrity. It was at the age of three she first appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and by the time she was four, she had her own waxwork at Madame Tussauds.

With the Second World War raging on, it was in February of 1945 that the future Queen Elizabeth II joined the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, inductee no. 230873 Elizabeth Windsor. The WATS served as everything, from anti-aircraft gunners to drivers, to mechanics, and then Princess Elizabeth chose to become a mechanic. Her Majesty served her country therefore not just in her capacity as Princess (and then sovereign) but also in the theatre of the greatest war Britain ever fought. The Queen continued this automotive tradition by teaching her children and grandchildren how to drive.

Early in 1947, Princess Elizabeth travelled with the King and Queen to South Africa. Upon her return, it was announced that she was to be married to her distant cousin, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten RN, then formerly the Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, and later the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In the late Queen’s own words, "[Prince Philip] has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years, and I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know." The Queen and the Duke throughout their marriage were the supreme example of public service. It seemed that duty was in their DNA, a trait they seamlessly passed on to their children. It is almost beyond measure to quantify the lives touched by their thousands of royal engagements.

It was in the summer of 1951 that the health of her father began to seriously decline, with Her Majesty (then Princess Elizabeth) representing him at Trooping the Colour and various other state occasions. This was Her Majesty’s first foretaste of the duties of the sovereign, and she took to them flawlessly. During a highly successful tour of Australia and New Zealand, en route to Sagana in Kenya, news of the King’s death reached her (6th February 1952). She flew back at once to England, having become Queen immediately on King George VI’s death. Immediately she took to the duties of the sovereign, carrying out her first state opening of Parliament on 4th November. That immediate assumption into duty is precisely what we knew Her Majesty for best. In that sense, she embodied the best of our nation, and the values we gave (and continue to give) to the world.

Following her Coronation, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh undertook a six-month round-the-world tour of the Commonwealth, including the first visit to Australia and New Zealand by a reigning British monarch. From here, Her Majesty established the global presence and interconnectedness that she was globally renowned for. This never left her in life, as she continued to travel abroad, late into her years. This was followed in years to come by the first royal British tour of India in 1961, and being the first British monarch to visit South America (1968) and the Persian Gulf (1979).

Ever at the precipice of progress and modernity, The Queen was always aware of the modern role of the monarchy. She was the first monarch to embrace the televising of the Royal Family’s domestic life (in 1970), and in social matters, condoned the dissolution of her sister Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon’s marriage in 1978. Steadfast in her role as the guiding shepherd of the nation, Her Majesty did not attempt to drag the United Kingdom back into the past but rather worked tirelessly that it could make the best of its future.

There would come several occasions in the 1990s that would test Her Majesty’s commitment to service before self. In 1992, a year that Her Majesty referred to as the ‘annus horribilis’, Prince Charles and his wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, separated, as did Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, Duchess of York. Moreover, Princess Anne divorced her then-husband Captain Mark Phillips. This was to be compounded with a fire severely damaging Windsor Castle, widely known as Her Majesty’s favourite residence. The wider recession caused resentment towards the lifestyle of the Royals to grow, and in 1992 Her Majesty agreed to pay taxes on her private income. Her Majesty weathered each of these storms in turn and emerged a stronger, more resilient sovereign, more capable in making the monarchy a central part of modern British social life than ever.

It was in 2002 that Her Majesty celebrated her 50th year on the throne. Events were held throughout the Commonwealth for the Golden Jubilee. These celebrations were in part overshadowed by Her Majesty losing her sister and mother early in the year. Nevertheless, the Queen knew that family was at the centre of everything she did, and carried the memories of her sister and mother with her as she sought to engage with her subjects more than ever. The rewards of weathering the storms of the 1990s found fruit, and in the latter part of the 2000s, the public standing of the Royal Family rebounded, clearly in large part to Her Majesty’s stalwart efforts.

The 2010s were blessed with several royal marriages, in traditional fashion. Prince William, then Duke of Cambridge (at the time of writing, being now Prince of Wales), married Catherine Middleton in 2011, in a ceremony captured around the world. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have engaged themselves busily in royal life and have fast become the most popular royal couple. One of the greatest successes of Her Majesty’s reign was in 2011, her state visit to Ireland, being the first monarch to visit Ireland. In her true humble and dutiful way, she played her part in helping to ease tensions in one of the world’s oldest and bitterest divisions. From her wreath-laying at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, bowing her head to those who died in the fight for Irish independence, to her speech on Anglo-Irish relations at Dublin Castle, offering words in Gaelic, here was a sovereign who understood the tact it took to appeal to the better nature of all people.

A year later followed the Diamond Jubilee, 2012, when a series of visits were undertaken by Her Majesty to every corner of the United Kingdom, and she was met by thousands of grateful and loyal subjects. The Queen, in characteristically dutiful form, in some of the worst inclement weather the UK has seen on a royal parade, stood on the deck of the royal barge for the length of its voyage. That steadfastness is highly symbolic of Her Majesty weathering the storms of the 70 years of her reign.

When Her Majesty became this country’s longest-serving sovereign in 2015, it was the humility and selfless dedication with which she took on the role that defined her. No change would there be to her duties, her routine, and her tireless dedication to the nation. She said of that occasion, “inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones […] my own is no exception”.

Another milestone, in 2016, was her 90th birthday, replete with picnics for the charities of which she was patron, and despite the typical British weather, there was a calm, collected and organised nature about the whole affair. This is what the Queen preferred, as one close to Her Majesty remarked, “every single thing was as she would want it, no emotion”. This is not to say the Queen was without emotion. More than any, Her Majesty knew that emotion had its place. Her Majesty stood at the centre of duty, tradition and service.

When the streets of Britain fell silent during the days of the pandemic, Her Majesty spent much of her time at Windsor Castle, in safe isolation with Prince Philip. It was from this stronghold that she elected to reach out through technology to the hearts of her struggling subjects. Her national broadcast during the first lockdown, with the message of hope for all that “we’ll meet again”, was hailed as a much-needed boost to the morale of the country. It was a testament to the fact that Her Majesty knew so many of us personally, and always had her finger on the pulse of the nation, even in its hardest times, which she saw so many of.

The death of the Duke of Edinburgh touched the whole nation, and indeed the world. But it was in customary stoicism that Her Majesty accepted the passing of her most faithful companion. For months after, she carried on with firm resolve, and it was always as if she knew the Duke was with her, in his traditional two steps behind. Her Majesty carried not just the weight of the nation on her shoulders for so many years, she first (and some say foremost)

Towards the end of her life, Her Majesty undertook her customary summer trip to Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was somehow fitting that her final days were spent here. This place contained so many happy memories with her family, and was frequented with trips by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It is a place of rural solace where she could spend her final days in private with her family. We could not wish for a better place. A life so splendorously lived, it seems fitting that she writes the final pages of her life story in such comfort.

In an address to the nation on 9th September, King Charles III honoured the memory of his mother, saying, “Queen Elizabeth's was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing.” This obituary perhaps only goes so far to do that statement justice. Her Majesty lived through an unprecedented era of social, material, and technological change, from the time of no television to the age of artificial intelligence. All throughout, Her Majesty gave us steadfast counsel and wisdom and steered us towards greener pastures, secure in our history as a nation.

Your Majesty, most gracious sovereign, may you rest in peace and rise in glory.