Over the last couple of days many words have been spoken and memories shared about the extraordinary reign of Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Friday. Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth was a constant through times of unprecedented social change and challenges.
She guided the monarchy into the modern era, where it not only survived, but renewed itself. She guided her family through turbulent times in the public eye. While she may not have always got it right, she learnt from her mistakes.
As Robert Hardman said to me recently, when I interviewed him about his book Queen of our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II, the Queen never moved ahead of the times – she always made sure to move with the time. She didn’t want to be fashionable. She understood the importance of stability, continuity, and permanence.
The Queen has been part of most of our lives for all of our lives, but Hardman’s definitive and intimate biography created a fondness for the Queen I hadn’t felt before. He described the Queen to me in April when I interviewed him as dutiful, modest, reserved, quite shy, a steely resolve, great sense of humour, and as genuinely enjoying the job.
It was the last bit about enjoying the job, which comes through strongly in Hardman’s book, that struck me most. It made me think about the Queen in a different light. I’d always known she was the epitome of duty and service, but it’s quite lovely to know she also enjoyed it.
My grandparents had the opportunity to experience some of that warmth in 1986, when they had dinner with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip aboard the royal yacht Britannia, birthed in Lyttleton. They were terribly nervous – there were strict instructions to be followed and a curtsey to perfect. My grandfather had suffered a stroke and didn’t have the use of his left hand and walked with a cane. The thought of getting up the gangway, and him having to cut up his own meal played on my grandparent’s minds.
There was no need to worry. Their hosts were well briefed on all their guests. They spoke to them as if they knew them, and my grandfather’s dinner was subtly presented in a manner he could manage with one arm.
It didn’t take long before they almost forgot they were dinning with the Queen. I always smiled when my grandmother said that – as if you could forget you were having dinner with the Queen!
While no one would have forgiven the Queen for quietly retiring when her rock Prince Philip passed away last year, duty and her love of the job kept her working up to her dying day.
Remarkable indeed.
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