Her Majesty’s loyalty and duty demonstrate the best of British

WE live in an age when deference to authority often looks old-fashioned and where adoration and worship is as likely to be laid at the door of this week’s pop sensation or TV starlet as it is to someone who has a real bearing and influence on our national life.

But then Her Majesty the Queen, head of state for 70 years, passes away at 96 and we are suddenly and powerfully reminded of the qualities that really matter in a person of importance.

The heartfelt personal grief many people have experienced at the death of a woman they had never spoken to and rarely seen in the flesh, is a testament to the qualities of the Queen that went far beyond her role as monarch.

She was, of course, a figurehead. Always there at those important state occasions. She brought seriousness and solemnity when needed, added graciousness and style where appropriate and, as we saw at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012 and the Platinum Jubilee this year, adding surprise and great humour when that was what was required.

But she was also a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who delighted in her family’s success, suffered with them through their difficulties and helped all of us to learn a little bit of how to manage tragedy and triumph in our own personal lives.

Through the loyalty, service and duty she showed she was an example to us all – the very embodiment of a way of life that has played a very large part in making Britain the nation that it is.

Some of those qualities were forged in the war years, which the Queen lived through as a young woman, serving her country as so many millions served. A good deal of what she learned about loyalty and commitment in those dark days she carried right through her life.

It was under the Queen’s reign that the Royal Family opened itself up to greater public scrutiny and extended the degree to which it engaged with people on royal visits across Britain. That could have proved a risky strategy for the monarchy, which relies on a certain mystery to keep the magic alive.

Yet the Queen achieved that balance – and showed others how to maintain it – ensuring that in a fastchanging world the British Royal Family, with the Queen at its head, was a constant.

Twenty-first century Britain has never been more questioning of aspects of national life – including the monarchy – that would once have been taken for granted. It is in no small part due to the Queen that the Royal Family remains as strong today as ever to many.

The Westcountry joins with the rest of Britain and the Commonwealth today in paying tribute to the Queen and looking ahead to the reign of King Charles III. So much of national life that has seemed solid and unchanging will now shift, but in a way that – thanks to the work of the Queen – is pre-ordained, wellordered and as it should be.

That’s just as Her Majesty would have wanted it. Her loyalty meant she valued continuity in our national life above all things. The Queen has passed, but Long Live the King.