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Baroness Williams of Crosby: My Lords, from these Benches, we, too, thank the Leader of the House for reading the humble Address. We associate very closely with his words of sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen and her family on the death of Her Royal Highness the Queen Mother.
We recognise that the Royal Family has recently suffered two very serious blows—first, the loss of Princess Margaret and now of the Queen Mother. We have every possible sympathy with Her Majesty the Queen, her son, the Prince of Wales, and her other children at this time. Among the many tributes about the Queen Mother—the noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, mentioned one of them—one in particular reached me, as a grandparent. I refer to the wonderful phrase of the Prince of Wales, that, "She was a magical grandmother". I think that everyone in this House who is a grandfather or grandmother will feel that that tribute is one that they would wish to be paid to them by their grandchildren when they reach the end of their lives.
Many have rightly said that we mourn the Queen Mother's passing, but we would like to add that we also celebrate her life. The combination of mourning and celebration most aptly sums up the life of the Queen Mother.
We recognise that the Queen Mother brought a great deal of dedication to public service. There have been many tributes to that effect from this country and from around the world. However, there was another quality that made the Queen Mother special—she brought to her life of public service not only dedication but an extraordinary quality of enjoyment. She obviously got a huge amount of pleasure from the very work that she did. She reached out to people so that everyone she met felt that they were a special person in her eyes. One of the most remarkable things about her was her capacity to extend, in a sense, affection and love to all kinds of people. At the end of the day, when they had met her, no one any longer felt that they were an ordinary person, because in her eyes everyone seemed to be an extraordinary person.
I remember meeting the Queen Mother on one particular occasion when, back in the 1970s, I was Education Secretary. She and other members of the Royal Family regularly used to attend the annual meeting of the Commonwealth Scholars held at the Commonwealth Institute. It was an occasion in royal diaries. However, no member of the Royal Family attended with such enthusiasm as the Queen Mother, who insisted on meeting every single Commonwealth scholar. I remember one occasion when, although she
was scheduled to leave at a particular hour, at 5 p.m., she still had not met every Commonwealth scholar. So she stayed until almost 6 p.m., and there was not a single person whom she did not greet, welcome and make feel at home. It was a very special moment for each of those Commonwealth scholars which they would never forget.The Queen Mother—if I may tell one other little anecdote—was of course also the Chancellor of the University of London. On one occasion, 30 years ago, my deputy leader Lord McNally became one of the many hundreds of people to have received at her hands as Chancellor a degree from the University of London. Afterwards, his mother said to him, "I noticed that she gave you a very special smile". I think that every single parent whose child met the Queen Mother has said exactly the same thing about her.
As the Leader of the House said, the Queen Mother also had an astonishing sense of wit and indeed of mischief. She was not only very quick on her feet—and not only at the Castle of Mey, where she was reputed to be a wonderful dancer of Scottish reels; on one occasion I saw her there twirling around the floor—but also very quick of mind. On one occasion, on one of her trips for the Commonwealth, she met an elderly African gentleman who waited a very long time in line to shake her hand. When he finally reached the Queen Mother, he said, "Ma'am, I hold against England what has been done to my people and will not easily forgive it". The Queen Mother smiled and said, "As a Scot, I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly".
As the Leader of the House has also said, the Queen Mother spanned a very long period in the history of these islands. However, she also spanned a period in which the monarchy moved from being the top of a very fixed social hierarchy. She was born into that hierarchy, but when she married the King, King George VI, she became a part of its top. However, throughout the war years and in the years immediately after the war, she moved elegantly from that aspect of the monarchy to one in which the monarchy was recognised as resting on popular support. I think that the greatest tribute we can pay to her is to say not only that she helped her husband King George VI, a shy and upright man, to meet with and contact his people, but that we owe her a truly great deal for the evolution of the monarchy to what it is today—a monarchy in which the Crown is very close to its people. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother played the single greatest part in that transformation. For that we as a country owe her a very great deal.
Lord Craig of Radley: My Lords, it is a great privilege to speak to the Motion on behalf of these Benches and to contribute to the most moving tributes already paid to a very gracious and remarkable lady. I doubt whether the death of anyone else one has known and been lucky enough to meet on a variety of different occasions could have enveloped my mind with such a multitude of disparate thoughts and reactions. We sense the great sadness of, and have great sympathy for, Her Majesty the Queen. To have lost two of her oldest, and very close, family members in a matter of
weeks is a tragedy of numbing proportions. Our sincerest condolences and deep sympathy go to her personally, and of course to all the other members of the Royal Family.In my mixture of memories and emotions, I recall that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth had been at the heart of the nation for all of my lifetime and more. She was Queen Consort, and the last Queen Empress, when I was still at kindergarten in Dublin.
Along with many others, I cherish happy memories of our discussions sitting together over a lunch or dinner or meeting at a reception. To discover that she liked a compliment as much as anyone half her age and greatly enjoyed a joke was a delight. She entered wholeheartedly into everything she did. All recall her amazing spirit and vitality. She gave to everyone she met a sense of her personal interest and enthusiasm for them as individuals. Of her it could truly be said that she loved people.
As I stood at her side as she took the salute for a parade of thousands on Horse Guards on her 90th birthday—a parade not only of the three services but of all those who represented her wide interests and pleasures—her attention never flagged. She was just so excited, enthusiastic and taken over by it all. Her love of horses and racing gave her another wide following. She was Colonel in Chief of many regiments and battalions, both regular and reserve. Her yearly distribution of shamrock to the Irish Guards on St Patrick's Day was a time-honoured tradition.
She had a soft spot for the Royal Air Force and was frequently involved in support for it. She was Commandant-in-Chief of the Central Flying School of the Royal Air Force for more than 40 years.
Seventy years ago, when Duchess of York, she and the Duke were attending a lunch at Trent Park hosted by Sir Philip Sassoon, then Under Secretary of State for Air. Sir Philip had his own aircraft and had arranged that, after lunch, the Duchess would be taken for a flight piloted by Dermot Boyle, who in 1956 was to become Chief of the Air Staff. Dermot Boyle's account of their experiences was typically droll. The private airstrip at Trent Park was small and surrounded by high trees. It was appalling as an airfield, but Sir Philip liked his trees. He would never allow any to be chopped down.
So, after lunch, the Duchess and Dermot walked together through the woods to the landing strip, and got airborne safely. They flew around, watched the Duke playing golf on the golf course, had a look over parts of London and then landed back, not without some difficulty, at Trent Park. About a week later, an Air Council instruction emerged. It had come to the notice of the Air Council, it said, that members of the Royal Family were being flown by officers of the Royal Air Force in conditions quite unbecoming to their station. In future, all flights for members of the Royal Family had to be from approved airfields and cleared beforehand by the Air Council.
Evidently, at an Air Council meeting after lunch at Trent Park, Sir Philip had reported how much Her Royal Highness had enjoyed the flight and that she was devoted to the Royal Air Force. However, uniformed Air Council members were most unhappy about the risk that had been taken, using such an unsuitable airstrip. A couple of years ago, I asked Her Majesty whether she remembered her flight from Trent Park with Dermot Boyle. She said that she did indeed. I was impressed.
She took in her stride the unpleasant interruptions while she spoke before unveiling the statue to Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris which stands outside the Royal Air Force Church of St Clement Danes in the Strand. Once again, her backing for the Royal Air Force and the services shone through.
We shall all wish to remember her in our own particular way. She must have sat for many, many portraits. Some do her greater justice than others. The one that I most like—it hangs in the officers' mess at RAF Bentley Priory—has her in white court dress, with a glittering tiara and a treasure trove of ever more diamonds and pearls in necklace and brooches, looking as regal and impressive as is possible, but with the light of laughter and amusement in her eyes.
She will always be remembered for the unique brightness and pleasure she brought to so many of her countrymen and women, to old and young alike, and to the whole wide world of her contacts. Truly could we all feel, without any reserve, that we were her most loyal and devoted admirers.
Her passing after a momentous and admirable life deprives us of her presence, but leaves us all blessed and privileged to have known one who always put duty before self; one who for all of her adult life dedicated herself to the whole nation, the empire and then the Commonwealth; and who loved, and just as much was adored by, her family and a world of friends. We all grieve for her greatly.
Noon
The Archbishop of Canterbury: My Lords, it is with great sadness that I convey from these Benches the support of the Lords Spiritual for the Motion. I hope, too, that my few words may reflect some of the feelings of the wider Church.
As we reflect on and pay tribute to a life well lived, our hearts go out to all those who will miss her most; the Queen and the Royal Family. As has already been mentioned, their bereavement is the greatest and the hardest to bear. Yet so greatly has the Queen Mother been loved that we all recognise a sense of real loss. That great love and the respect she has inspired across the generations arose from her marvellous example of service and duty. Yet to this she has added her own very special grace and charm, so that every family, here in Britain and across the Commonwealth, found a place for her in their hearts.
We appreciated the way she took up uncomplaining the unexpected burden of service to her country and we remember a Queen Mother who carried this burden with unfailing courage, supported by the great joy that
she took in her family. Let us not forget that she faced with courage, as has already been mentioned, the private sadness of the loss of her husband, a widowhood of 51 years, and very recently the death of her younger daughter.One source of this courage was her deep and straightforward faith in Almighty God. Her devotion to the truths of the Christian gospel was a rich source of strength. It helped to sustain her throughout her long life, lived with such grace, elegance and, most of all, with a deep and enduring joy.
I want to add to the anecdotes that have already been mentioned. I remember her saying with a laugh that I was her eighth archbishop. She had known Randall Davidson, who was appointed Dean at Windsor by Queen Victoria. I may have been one of eight archbishops but the Queen Mother was unique. On another occasion I recall mentioning the name of John Henry Newman, who was vicar of St Mary's, Oxford as long ago as the 1820s. Her reply stunned me. "Oh yes,", she replied with enthusiasm, "my grandfather was profoundly influenced by him". Suddenly we had travelled back the best part of 180 years.
We cannot do better than to pause today, as we are doing, to say a heartfelt thank you for a long life, one nurtured by a direct and deep faith in Almighty God, a faith expressed in those wonderful words of St Paul:
- "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things".
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