'It was a time of great progress and change; a period that required stability. Leadership. Leadership which fell upon the shoulders of a 25-year-old Elizabeth Windsor.'
There were few doubts that Queen Elizabeth would be able to handle the weighty duties as head of state.
She pledged to devote herself to the service of her people both in Britain and the Commonwealth when she was still Princess Elizabeth. She more than delivered on that promise. Hymns echoed around Westminster Abbey, a fitting place to say goodbye to the second longest reigning monarch in the world. It was here that she married her “strength and stay”, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip. Westminster Abbey was where her coronation took place. The poetic circle of service could not have been more perfect.
If there were any fears about Britain’s standing on the world stage then those will have been assuaged by the scale and speed at which the authorities have enacted plans to enable people to pay their respects to Her late Majesty. In her 2014 Christmas Message, Queen Elizabeth II said: “Christ’s example has taught me to seek to respect and value all people of whatever faith and none.”Queen Elizabeth II’s first ever radio broadcast was on the BBC’s Children’s Hour in 1940, where even as a 14-year-old, she reassured young people whose lives had been turned upside down by the Second World War that “in the end, all will be well.
When she lost her beloved husband Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth observed public health guidelines, cutting the image of a lone figure clad in a mask at the funeral bringing a tear to the nation’s eye. As the Archbishop of Canterbury so aptly put it in his sermon, “Those who serve will be loved and remembered long after those who cling to power and privileges have been forgotten.”