| "It has been women who have breathed gentleness and care
into the harsh progress of mankind"
This quote from Queen Elizabeth II is one of my favourites because if anyone breathed gentleness and care into the most demanding of roles, it was the Queen herself. A woman whose very existence as the head of the monarchy provoked such controversy, whose role was so closely associated with colonialism and oppression and whose 70-year reign spanned 15 Prime Ministers and numerous periods of extreme hardship for the British people, as well as several anni horribiles for the Royal family themselves. And yet she handled all the big moments with such dignity and stoicism. On the public stage she was an exemplar of apolitical leadership. In person, the stories that have come out this week are of an exceptionally gracious and engaging individual who really cared about the people she met and brought no little sense of humour to the right situations. For such a diminutive lady, she possessed gravitas like no other as shown in her response to the death of Princess Diana or her speech to the nation amidst the Covid-19 lockdowns. She was extraordinarily discreet, barely ever speaking out on current affairs - coronavirus being the exception. But she also knew when to bring humour to a situation, such as eating marmalade sandwiches with Paddington Bear or appearing in a James Bond skit for the Olympic Games. Since her ascension to the throne at the age of 25, the world has chnaged beyond recognition and yet the Queen was a quiet constant in all our lives. She was there centre stage on the Buckingham Palace balcony, surrounded by her ever-growing, changing family, at all the jubilees and royal weddings we watched on TV and she was there on ordinary, tangible things we touched every day, like stamps and coins. When the Queen was born, there wasn't even colour TV. By the time her reign ended, she was not only conducting meetings through Zoom but also posting on Instagram. She was there for the moon landings, the demolition of the Berlin wall, the election of the first female Prime Minister, war and peace in Northern Ireland and through the transformation of the British empire.
A female role model like no other, we were lucky to have the Queen for so long. RIP Queen Elizabeth II.
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