By the time of publication, the funeral of The Queen will have taken place and the national period of mourning will be over. However, the legacy of this most admired- and probably most famous woman of the last hundred years- will continue for millennia.
The wonderful school of which I am Principal responded to the news of the death of Her Majesty with our students’ customary respect, courtesy and sense of engagement. As the news emerged on the evening of Thursday 8 September, our own, modest Operation London Bridge began, as the Senior Leadership Team began to plan the next steps on how we would help to navigate our school community- including parents- during this cataclysmic event and mourning period. In addition to the outpouring of grief from staff and students alike, there was also a sense of wonderment at the scope of Her Majesty’s reign.
Moreover, as our own memorial service emphasised, she had an absolute commitment to her role as Head of State of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, plus all the other territories and countries over which she presided.
Dozens of biographies have already been written about Her Majesty, and there will be countless more over the coming months and years. Not one of them will be able to be exhaustive in detail, as that would entail tomes larger than the Encyclopaedia Britannica volumes that I envied so much as a child. However, here are a few observations about her reign that we, as a school community, have noted about Her Majesty:
Her Majesty was incredibly well-loved and respected around the world outside of the UK and the Commonwealth.
Who knew that she had a particularly close relationship with the Obamas, and that Michelle was a real favourite of hers? The outpouring of public grief from current and former world leaders was a testament to her world-beating status. Even ‘The Donald’ managed to produce a statement that sounded heartfelt, genuine and considerate. No mean feat in itself.
Medical advances during the Queen’s lifetime would have been inconceivable when she was born.
Her reign, the second-longest in recorded history, encompassed a world that began in 1926 before penicillin was discovered, and ended at a time when nanotechnology drugs and treatment are no longer a figment of a sci-fi geek’s imagination.
She enjoyed/had to endure weekly meetings with a variety of Prime Ministers during her reign.
During her reign, she presided over 15 Prime Ministers, from her beloved Winston Churchill, to her not-so beloved (allegedly) Margaret Thatcher; to the eccentricities of the recently deposed Boris Johnson, and the installation of Liz Truss only a few days before she died.
The Queen had a wicked sense of humour.
Who can forget her ‘skydiving’ stint at the 2012 Olympics, alongside Daniel Craig as 007? Also, her interaction with Paddington during last year’s Jubilee celebration was a masterclass in comic timing and drollery.
She was, actually, just as mortal as the rest of us.
I don’t think many of us will forget the last public image of her that was released, where she is greeting the newly-elected PM with a broad grin, but with a frailty that touched the hearts of the nation. For lots of us, it made us realise that she was, after all, a mortal being. All across social media on Thursday night were people incredulous that our beloved monarch was dead- ‘I thought she would live forever’, was a refrain issued across the social media platforms.
Finally, as Paddington sagaciously posted on Twitter: Thank you, Ma’am, for everything.