A life of service

It seems almost unbelievable that a year has passed since the death of Elizabeth II. Her long life of service meant that few of us had personal memories of any other monarch. The United Kingdom had changed out of all recognition in those years and the British Empire had transitioned into the Commonwealth. The late Queen was the one constant anchor in this fast-moving world. We could measure our own life events against the milestones in her reign. 

Her late Majesty had come to embody the institution of the Crown in our island’s – indeed the world’s – collective imagination. The quarter of a million people who queued up to pay their personal respects to her by processing past her coffin lying in state in Westminster Hall last September attest to the devotion, esteem, and indeed love in which she was so widely held. 

In the words of the King, “In marking the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death and my Accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us.” 

We owe much to both Elizabeth II and our current monarch. Few imagined on this day last year that the transition to the new Carolean age would run quite as smoothly as it has done. The new King and Queen have performed their duties in a way that not even the institution’s diminishing number of critics can find fault with. From the splendour of the Coronation to the sheer number and diversity of their day-to-day public engagements, all has been accomplished masterfully. The institution of monarchy remains as strong and popular now as it has ever been. That is no slight achievement.