A Tribute to HRH Queen Elizabeth II

This article was published in Education Choices Magazine's Autumn Edition 2022 in October 2022. 

The team at Education Choices Magazine was greatly saddened to hear of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in early September this year. She was the sixth sovereign queen and the forty-second sovereign of Britain since William the Conqueror. As the longest reigning monarch in Britain, she served for 70 years from her coronation on 2 June 1953, until the age of 96.

An inspiration to thousands, Queen Elizabeth II carried out more than 21,000 royal engagements and appearances over her reign; was more well-travelled than any previous British monarch with at least 260 official overseas trips, and hosted an average of 50,000 people every year at Buckingham Palace for a variety of luncheons, receptions and events. 

A remarkable woman, the Queen was never intended to be the heir to the throne. It wasn’t until the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, that she found herself next in line. As a child, Winston Churchill described Elizabeth: “As a character. She has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant”. Her composure has been remarked upon throughout her entire reign, particularly after her father’s sudden death whilst she was visiting Kenya in 1952; the public was much impressed by her remarkable composure on her homecoming, as she found herself the Queen of England and the Commonwealth countries, aged only 25. 

As a young girl, the Queen never attended formal schooling. Instead, she was taught by private tutors at home in a variety of subjects such as constitutional history, law, as well as French, German and music. The Queen was, in fact, fluent in French; a skill she often utilised in her overseas engagements. Her Majesty spent some of her teen years growing up during the tumultuous Second World War as well, during which time she learned to drive by driving a truck and also trained as a mechanic. Famously, at the end of World War Two, she and her sister, Margaret, secretly left the Palace to celebrate amongst the public on VE Day in 1945. 

The Queen maintained her strong familial values despite the responsibility involved in her reign, having four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. Her Majesty, in fact, only missed the opening of Parliament twice in her lifetime: once in 1959 for Prince Andrew’s birth, and once again in 1963 for Prince Edward’s birth. She was also the first monarch to celebrate a Diamond Wedding Anniversary, after being married to her husband, Prince Phillip, for 60 years in 2007. Before Prince Phillip’s passing just last year in April, the couple had been together for 73 years. The Queen had purchased her wedding dress with World War Two rationing coupons, returning touching donations of clothing rations given to her by women across the United Kingdom at the time. 

Her Majesty also owned over 30 corgis in her life, all thought to be descended from the one she had as a young child called Susan. She also unintentionally introduced the dog breed, ‘Dorgi’, when one of her corgis bred with Princess Margaret’s dachshund.

The Queen was an exception to many British laws. For example, she was unable to vote, nor could she be prosecuted or compelled to give evidence in court. She also did not need a passport to travel abroad and did not need a licence to drive a car. Her Majesty was also awarded a BAFTA in 2013 in a ceremony at Windsor Castle for “lifelong support of the British film and television industry”. This was perhaps related to her cameo as a “Bond girl” during the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, demonstrating the more playful side to her character. 

This sense of humour was also seen when she tricked some American tourists whilst on holiday in Balmoral: when they came across two American hikers on the grounds of her holiday home in Scotland, they did not recognise her and proceeded to ask Her Majesty where she lived, and whether she had ever met Queen Elizabeth. The Queen, dryly, told them that Richard Griffin, the former Royal Protection Officer who was accompanying her, had in fact met the Queen. The Americans asked the Queen to take their picture with Griffin, who then afterwards took a picture of the tourists with the Queen and bid them farewell without alerting them as to their mistake. 

Her majesty is reported to have once said: “For me, heaven is likely to be a bit of a come-down”, which is certainly a fitting sentiment to commemorate the undeniably extraordinary nature and achievement of her life and legacy for the British nation.