Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Her Majesty The Queen.
I am not a fan of memorial services to be honest. I think that you should tell people how wonderful they are whilst they are here to hear it. A friend of mine recently left the area and at a farewell lunch I told him what a good friend he had been.
Since it is highly unlikely that I will ever have lunch with The Queen it seems that the only way of lauding her is through the impersonal (but very personal) blog.
The Queen has recently said that she will watch the Remembrance Sunday parade from the Foreign Office building and that the Prince of Wales will lay her wreath as well as his own.
It is sad that this decision has been made but The Queen is 91 and an age when most would be well retired or no longer with us so it is understandable.
"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to our great imperial family to which we all belong."It is quite an achievement for anyone to have lived up to a pledge made whilst young for 70 years but the fact is that The Queen has done so and without complaint. It would be hell in my view to live under the spotlight all the time and whilst it would be fun to have people run around after you for a week I think it would soon pale.
The Queen is the only monarch anyone under 65 has known and she has fulfilled her role in an exemplary way in my view. Certainly I will not live to see any other monarch reign for 65 years.
It is difficult to explain exactly what it is that she represents. All I can say is that she represents to me at least Country and feelings of patriotism and sometimes emotion. None of us is irreplaceable but I think I would echo what Kenneth Baker said about another female leader
We shall not see her like again
Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour
long may she reign.
May she defend our laws
and ever give us cause
to sing with heart and voice
God Save The Queen
O Lord our God arise!
ReplyDeleteScatter her enemies
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks
On Thee our hopes we fix.
God save us all.
My Great Aunt Isobel, who was a naval nursing sister in the Great War, said that the sailors always sang this verse of the national anthem with great feeling.
What a pity the milksops took it out.
In the meantime, the French go on watering the furrows with the impure blood of their enemies in the Marseillaise. Good luck to them!
But our more mildly expressed patriotism is suppressed by what we now term Political Correctness.