West Fife pays tribute to Her Majesty the Queen
Hundreds line route of cortege on Sunday to show their respect
TRIBUTES to Her Majesty the Queen have been paid across West Fife.
Hundreds OF West Fifers turned out to pay their respects as the cortege containing Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin made its way through West Fife on Sunday. Close to 4pm, the cortege reached West Fife, having travelled down the M90 motorway from Perth, before then reaching the Queensferry Crossing, which Her Majesty opened in September 2017.
Many stood in the central reservation of the M90 motorway as the cortege passed the turn-offs for Dunfermline, Rosyth and Inverkeithing, keen to witness a moment of history and show their appreciation of Britain’s longestserving monarch.
The public were able to write messages of sympathy at the City Chambers in Dunfermline and Inverkeithing Civic Centre on Friday, and the heartfelt notes will be collated and sent to Buckingham Palace.
Provost of Fife Jim Leishman said: “I know all Fifers will join me in sending our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to all members of the royal family at this sad time.
“Our Queen has had an extraordinary reign and Scotland has always had a special place in her heart. She paid many visits to our Kingdom of Fife over the years, including to officially open the new Queensferry Crossing in 2017.
“Her legacy lives on as she will in the hearts of all of us.”
The Lord-Lieutenant of Fife, Robert Balfour said: “It was with great sadness that I have learned of the death of our late Sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second. On behalf of all the people of Fife, I have conveyed our sincere condolences to His Majesty the King.
“Her Majesty the Queen was held in high regard and was loved and admired by many Fifers.”
Appointed in December 2014 by the Queen herself, Mr Balfour recalled the many times she visited the Kingdom.
He continued: “Her Majesty was greatly respected in the United Kingdom and throughout the world for her lifetime of dedication and service to our nation and to the Commonwealth.
“I recall the many times she visited Fife, most recently in 2017 when she opened the new Queensferry Crossing and in 2018 when she presented new colours to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards at Leuchars.
“It has been my great privilege to serve as the Queen’s Lord-Lieutenant of Fife and I look forward to supporting the work of our new King, who has already demonstrated his commitment to the development of a modern monarchy for our changing times.”
Neale Hanvey, Alba Party MP for
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, said: “The news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth is undoubtedly an event of global significance. While the Queen’s passing will be marked in a personal way from home to home across the constituency, it is important that we remember that this is a moment of great loss to many.
“This is especially true of the Queen’s own family, and in their time of grief it is incumbent on everyone to act with the respect we would wish for our own loved ones.”
Mr Hanvey went on to announce that the Alba Party would be suspending any campaign activity for the immediate future.
Annabelle Ewing, SNP MSP for the same constituency, said: “The passing of the Queen marks the end of an era – the longest-serving monarch our country has ever seen, she has been a fixture in all of our lives, many of us having known no-one other than Elizabeth as Sovereign.
“The 70 years of Elizabeth’s reign were decades which saw remarkable change across the world and here at home. She always demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to that change.
“In mourning the Queen’s death, we respect decades of service, born of an immense sense of duty and commitment to the position into which she was born and which she was determined to fulfil from the moment she became monarch in 1952 to very last days of her own life, at the age of 96.
“We also recognise that on a very human level, she was the matriarch of her own family, and so my thoughts and condolences are with the King and the wider royal family as they mourn the loss of a mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother.”
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and former minister of St. Margaret’s
Parish Church in Abel Place in Dunfermline, the Rt Rev Dr Iain Greenshields, had joined the Queen at Balmoral the weekend before her death.
Dr Greenshields spoke on the emotions he felt when he heard of her death, saying: “It came as a great shock to me when I heard she was gravely ill because she was in amazingly good form over the weekend.
“She was the life and soul of things.
“She was speaking very personally to me about her time there way back when she was a child; she was talking about her horses from the past, naming them from 40 years ago, people’s names and places. She was quite remarkable.”
Spending Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch with Queen Elizabeth II, they had a great deal of time to reminisce.
“She talked about her memories of Balmoral as a child, her father the King, and the Church of Scotland, which she had a very fond affection for,” he said.
“She asked about me, my ministry and my family and came across as a happy person and was very gracious.
“It was a very engaging and thoroughly enjoyable experience.”
He touched upon her long service and dedication.
He continued: “She has been the steady constant in the life of our nation for over seven decades and most of us will have grown up knowing only her as our monarch.”
“Tireless in her duty, the Queen has demonstrated a life of selfless dedication. Her love for her family was mirrored in her love for our nation and the wider Commonwealth.”
On our Facebook page, the Press asked readers if they went to pay their respects as the Queen’s cortege passed through West Fife, and why. Kirsty Page commented: “My gran loved the queen and had she been alive today she would have wanted to say her goodbyes. I have her ashes in a ring, and I went along for my gran.”
Tracy Clark added: “It was a very special moment saying goodbye to Her Majesty with a round of hiphip-hoorays.”
The funeral for Queen Elizabeth II will be held at Westminster Abbey in London at 11am on Monday.
The service will be televised and Dunfermline North Parish church will be showing the funeral.