I was born in 1950 when Queen Elizabeth’s father, George VI, was our monarch. He died in the early hours of 6th February 1952 - the day before my second birthday - and she was proclaimed Queen later that day. As a result, I have lived most of my life as one of her subjects. During those seventy years I saw her at close quarters once when - as Captain General of the regiment - she opened the Royal Artillery’s museum, FIREPOWER! in Woolwich.
Her death means that the country has a new monarch. I will mourn her passing as it marks the end of a very definite period of our country’s history. She came to the throne just as the United Kingdom began to emerge from the aftermath of the World War, and many people saw the ascension to the throne of a new, young Queen was a sign that things were going to change for the better. The was talk of a New Elizabethan Age, coming as it did so soon after the staging of the forward-looking Festival of Britain.
Her first Prime Minster was Winston Churchill, and her fifteenth and last was Liz Truss. She assiduously performed her constitutional duties and provided a link between the various and varied governments that have run the country in her name for the last seventy years. She has presided over a country that has changed very drastically during her reign and always tried to be a unifying force when social, economic, and political change put strain upon it. Regardless of one’s personal beliefs as to whether or not the United Kingdom should remain a constitutional monarchy, we owe her a great debt.
Thank you, ma’am.
God save the King!
