This article is published in the Jerusalem Post Weekend Magazine, 16 September 2022
Born and raised in England, I am one of
the rapidly reducing number of people who remember the world before the second
Elizabethan age. Unlike the vast
majority of fellow Brits, the sound of “God Save the King” is no novelty in my
ears. In fact in my 91 years I have
witnessed five monarchs on the British throne, four of them kings. The most recent, of course, is Charles III.
I was four years old in 1935 when my parents took me to join the
crowds to see King George V and Queen Mary drive through the East End of London
to celebrate their Silver Jubilee, and I remember to this day seeing them sweep
by us – a full 15 seconds-worth of contact with royalty. Then followed the disastrous year of 1936,
which witnessed not only the death of King George, but the brief reign of his
son as Edward VIII which ended in abdication.
Before 1936 ended, however, we had witnessed the accession of King
George VI, the late Queen’s father.
When I joined the British Army in 1950 to undertake my National
Service, which was compulsory in the post-war UK, I pledged my loyalty to His
Majesty, the King. By the time I
left in 1952 the new Elizabethan age had
started. As the Queen began her reign, many
remembered the extraordinary broadcast she had made back in 1947, the year she
became 21. As Princess Elizabeth, heir
to the throne, she spoke to everyone in the UK and what was still the British
empire but also a developing Commonwealth – a vast agglomeration of peoples
spread across the globe.
Broadcasting from Cape Town in South Africa, she spoke long and
feelingly especially to “all the young men and women who were born about the
same time as myself and have grown up like me in the terrible and glorious
years of the Second World War.” She
asked for their support in carrying the burden she was preparing herself to bear.
Reiterating the motto borne
by many of her ancestors, “I serve”, she said: “I declare before you all that
my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service
and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong….God help
me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in
it.”
Never was an intention
more completely fulfilled. The world
witnessed a life dedicated to the service of the peoples under her rule, and to
the wider world. As decade followed decade.
she was increasingly a steady, permanent presence in turbulent times. It was her inner strength of purpose that assured
people of her unshakable determination to continue serving them, no matter
what.
She made no secret of
the fact that the rock on which her strength of purpose was based – however out
of tune with the times this may have been – was her profound religious belief
as a practising Christian. Throughout
her reign, with only one exception, the Queen broadcast to the nation and the
world on Christmas Day, and each and every such talk made reference to the
religious significance of the occasion.
And this is why, back in 1947, she had asked God to “help me make good
my vow.”
Queen
Elizabeth’s life can truly be described as one of duty done – duty as a
monarch, certainly, but also, as we learned thanks to the media spotlight
increasingly focused on her and the royal family over the years, duty as a
mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
She died fulfilling her duty to the very end. Two days earlier she was pictured in the
media appointing a new UK prime minister.
In her death, she exemplified her life.
I began on a personal note. Let me conclude on one, for it chances that I came a good deal closer to the late Queen than I had done to her grandfather as a four-year-old. One morning in 2006 I received a letter with the ominous “On Her Majesty’s Service” emblazoned across the envelope. Certain that I had a nasty surprise awaiting me from the tax authorities, I opened it only to discover, to my utter astonishment, that the prime minister was minded to recommend me for an honour in the Queen’s forthcoming Birthday Honours List, and was I minded to accept?
I was. So some months later my wife and I,
accompanied by my son and daughter-in-law, found ourselves inside Buckingham
Palace. While they disposed themselves
in the audience, I joined the queue of some hundred people also receiving an
honor that day, and eventually found myself face to face with the Queen. After
she had pinned the medal on my lapel, we exchanged a few words. I discovered that she knew about and was
interested in the broadcasting career that had brought me before her. We shook hands and, stepping backwards so as
not to turn my back on her, as is the etiquette, I left her, but of course
those few minutes in the presence of the sovereign remain with me, and always
will.
That
is precisely the feeling shared by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of
people the world over who have had some sort of contact, personal or not, with
the Queen. She had a unique ability to engage with individuals and enthuse
multitudes. People like this are rare
indeed. Those of us who mourn her
passing do not believe we shall see her like again.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-717248
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