I’m so shocked and saddened at the news

EVEN though it was not totally unexpected, the death of the Queen came as something of a shock – and left me deeply saddened.

And it took me back to just after 11 o’clock on the morning of 6th February, 1952 (when I was a 12-year-old at boarding school in Kent) and our Latin lesson was interrupted by a request from the headmaster to join the rest of the school in the Assembly Hall.

Mystified, excited and not a little apprehensive as to the reason for this extraordinary summons, we made our way there as requested.

Our excited chatter was stilled when the headmaster took his place at the lectern and gravely announced the sad news that the King had died earlier that morning.

To my eternal shame, my first reaction was to nudge the boy standing next to me and whisper “That’s no more lessons today then!”

But the prospect of spending

the rest of the day free from the classroom, was shattered when the headmaster, following a short tribute to the late King, prayers and the singing of the National Anthem (reminding us to exchange the word King for Queen) told us that he was sure that His Majesty would not have wanted his passing to interrupt our routine and ordered us back to our classrooms with the admonition to carry on as usual.

Robert Readman Dorset