Mourning her Majesty
LONDON skies were fittingly grey as the news of the end of the recordbreaking reign of the woman who was not meant to be queen, our Queen Elizabeth II, spread yesterday.
Although she was 96, and in failing health, the death of her Majesty was still a shock. It came mere days after she had been pictured smiling as she received the new United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss and asked her to form a government.
That event, as many commentators have remarked, epitomised the dedication of the late Queen to her role, a commitment which had endured for more than 70 years. That dedication was clear from the beginning of her reign.
Not destined to be monarch at birth, Princess Elizabeth became the heir presumptive after her father ascended the throne following the scandalous abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII.
The 25yearold young mother was already on royal business, visiting Kenya when she found out her beloved father George VI, who had lung cancer, had died at the age of 56.
Whatever inner turmoil and grief she may have experienced at that news was not shared publicly. Instead, one of her first actions was to write letters to leaders apologising she would have to cancel the rest of her trip.
It may be hard for today’s generation to understand, but when the new Queen and her husband Prince Philip visited New Zealand in late 1953 and early 1954, the couple were greeted by thousands of excited flagwaving children and adults who could not get enough of the glamorous young couple. Royal fever was certainly alive and well during the Dunedin leg of the visit which included the couple waving to crowds from the balcony at the Law Courts Hotel where they stayed, a town hall reception, a Forbury Park picnic, a visit to the Roslyn Woollen Mills, a concert, a trip to the Karitane Hospital and even a sports event featuring Olympic gold medallist long jumper Yvette Williams.
It was the first time a reigning monarch had visited New Zealand and would be one of 10 visits, the last during her Golden Jubilee year in 2002.
A quaint annual Christmas Day ritual for many New Zealand families would be tuning in to her Christmas message. Her second one of these was recorded in Auckland on that first tour. In it she expressed her sadness about the Tangiwai disaster which killed 151 people on Christmas Eve.
The Queen struck the right tone then, but occasionally she got it wrong in the eyes of the public, as when she delayed visiting the scene of the 1966 pit disaster in Wales, and more recently, after Princess Diana’s death in 1997 when she was slow to respond publicly.
Queen Elizabeth’s reign covered years of great social, economic, and technological change as the world emerged from the aftermath of the Second World War.
Somehow, her Majesty managed to negotiate her way with good humour through tumultuous times, including the various scandals involving her own kin, retain considerable mystique, keep her counsel as her position required, and be regarded with great public affection.
It has been an extraordinary achievement, one which it is hard to imagine being repeated.
To paraphrase the sentiments expressed by British Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, her Majesty was above the clashes of politics, standing not for what the world fought over, but what it agreed upon. As change occurred rapidly around her, this dedication ‘‘became the still point of our turning world’’.
There will be many questions to be answered in the days ahead about the future of the monarchy in the time of Charles III, but this is not the time for them.
It is a moment to stop and let our memories of her Majesty, whatever they are, be the still point of our personal turning worlds.