It is with great sadness that we learned of the death of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll yesterday. She was our longest ever reigning monarch having presided with grace and dignity for over 70 years.
Elizabeth II became Queen at the age of twenty five on February the 6th 1952 and so was Queen for 70 years and 214 days and this year became the only monarch of this country to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee – marking 70 years on the throne. Many of the families from our school will have seen the seen the celebrations on TV and, being Londoners, we can be sure that a few families were able to attend the celebrations that took place in June in person. Many of you will have attended the Jubilee picnic at Thornton Heath Nursery School, our first event where we were able to ask all of you to join us since the pandemic restrictions. It was clear at that time that the Queen was frail, as you would expect from a lady of her age, and she was not able to attend some of the events that had been organised. However, she assured everyone that her ‘heart was with us all’ and that she had been inspired by ‘the kindness joy and kinship’ that was evident. It was well known that the Queen loved a party and she would have relished this celebration and given thanks that she was able to enjoy such a long reign.
Many of the families at our nursery will have never known another monarch and many may not even have known that it was possible for the job to be done by anyone else. The Queen has, quite simply, always been there, calm, assured and actually remarkably unchanged for all that time.
Of course the Queen has a famous family of Princes and Princesses, Dukes and Duchesses, who she leaves behind. We have lost our Queen but they have lost a Grandma, Great Grandma or Mother. From our THNS family we send our condolences to the Royal Family and hope that they will find comfort in the fact that the Queen was able to achieve her desire of a lifetime of public service and died peacefully in her sleep. The United Kingdom and the countries of the Commonwealth have lost a great Head of State with her devotion to duty being an example to us all.
There will now follow a 10 day period of mourning until Her Majesty’s funeral takes place. We hope to arrange some events to mark the end of of the reign of Queen Elizabeth but those will be shared on another day. For now flags all over the country fly at half mast to recognise the death of a great Queen. May she rest in peace.
