Thursday 8th September 2022.
”The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.
The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
21st April 1926 – 8th September 2022.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, Queen Elizabeth the second, first daughter to the late King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Sister to Princess Margaret, Wife to Prince Philip, Mother to Prince Charles, Princess Anne (the princess royal), Prince Andrew (Duke of York) and Prince Edward (Earl of Wessex), Mother in Law to the late Princess Diana (Prince Charles divorced wife), Camilla, Timothy Laurence (Princess Royal divorces husband), Mark Philips, Sarah Ferguson (Prince Andrew divorced wife) and Sophie, Grandmother to Prince William, Prince Henry (Harry), Zara, Peter, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise, Severn James, Great-Grandmother to Savannah Phillips, Isla Phillips, Prince George, Mia Tindall, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis, Lena Tindall, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, August Brooksbank, Lucas Tindall, Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor and Sienna Mapelli Mozzi. That is 4 children, 8 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren!
She reigned for just over 70 years becoming queen at the age of 25 on 6th February 1952 when her father died and the Prime minister was Winston Churchill having formed her last government on Tuesday 6th September 2022. She has gone through 15 Prime minsters including three women, Winston Churchill (1951-1955), Sir Anthony Eden (1955-1957), Harold Macmillan (1957-1963), Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-1964), Harold Wilson (1964-1970 and 1974-1976), Edward Heath (1970-1974), James Callaghan (1976-1979), Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), John Major (1990-1997), Tony Blair (1997-2007), Gordon Brown (2007-2010), David Cameron (2010-2016), Theresa May (2016-2019), Boris Johnson (2019-2022 and Liz Truss (2022-present).
She has welcomed numerous people to Buckingham Palace and her other residents, she has carried out more than 21,000 official engagements, she was the sovereign of 32 independent countries, She visited 117 countries, and travelled at least 1,032,513 miles! Can you image doing that? Now that is a lot of hard work. Not only did she do all of that she was president or patron of more than 600 charities, she had welcomed 12 presidents on the USA in London, her reign had so many key moments and she took every single one of them in her stride.
Not only was she queen to the United kingdom but has 15 commonwealth realms Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and United Kingdom. That is a lot of countries and a lot of people but each country she visited and each country she would keep up with everything going on in government with only taking two days of a year, Christmas day and Easter Sunday. She worked hard from the first time that she became heir to her final days as queen.
Over the years we have sung the national anthem and now that changes from queen to king and after 70 years what a change it will be!
God save our gracious King (Queen)
Long live our noble King (Queen)
God save the King (Queen)
Send him (her) victorious
Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us
God save the King (Queen)
O Lord our God arise
Scatter his (her) enemies
And make them fall
Confound their politics
Frustrate their knavish tricks
On Thee our hopes we fix
God save us all
Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour
Long may he (she) reign
May he (she) defend our laws
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the King (Queen)
Not in this land alone
But be God’s mercies known
From shore to shore
Lord make the nations see
That men should brothers be
And form one family
The wide world over
From every latent foe
From the assassins blow
God save the King (Queen)
O’er her thine arm extend
For Britain’s sake defend
Our mother, prince, and friend
Not only was the Queen Elizabeth a leader to many nations she was also a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and the next few days, months and years are going to be a huge adjustment. Imagine loosing a family member but then having to share your feelings with the rest of the world-it has to be scary at the best of times! Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the royal family at this time.
We don’t know when the funeral is going to be, we don’t know what the next few months will hold and this news for us was a surprise but what I do know is that God knew this day was coming and he knew when it would be. He knows what is going to happen and we are able to fully trust in Him and the plan he has for the royal family, for us, for the country and for the rest of the world.
God save the King.
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