A Service of Commemoration
It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. She served this country and the Commonwealth with constancy, devotion and dignity and will remain an inspiration to us all. Our thoughts are with the royal family at this time.
This morning, the whole school community came together for a service of commemoration and thanksgiving in the Quad. Pupils and staff observed a minute of silence, sang the National Anthem, prayed together and reflected on the Queen’s extraordinary life. The Warden spoke about the immense impact Her Majesty has had during her reign and her unstinting dedication to her duty.
From the Warden:
“The things which I have here-before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God”.
Those are the last words of the Coronation Oath, which Queen Elizabeth II swore in Westminster Abbey in June 1953. And perform and keep them she did. Whatever your politics, that is an unarguable truth. She promised and swore to govern the people of the United Kingdom according to our laws and customs. And she did. In the old-fashioned words of the oath, she promised to her power to cause law and justice, in mercy, to be executed in all her judgements. And she did. The Queen never expected to have to swear that oath. If her uncle, Edward VIII had not abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, her father would never have become king and she would have lived a private life.
Even then, she knew that it would not be an ordinary life. She knew that it would be a life of service. These words are taken from a television broadcast which she made on her 21st birthday, six years before the coronation: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service”.
The Queen lived to become the longest-serving monarch. She saw fifteen Prime Ministers come and go; she met 13 American Presidents; she lived long enough to own more than 40 Corgi dogs.
And it was, truly and completely, a life of service. It is estimated that she travelled more than a million miles as Head of State. She put her name to more than 600 charitable organisations.
Some people in our community will remember the Queen’s coronation. But none of us will ever forget where we were and what we were doing yesterday when we heard that the Queen had died. Her death will affect us all in different ways and to different extents during this time of mourning and sadness.
We must respect those differences; we must support each other; we must not allow the busyness of the term to prevent us from taking the time to reflect, to think about this moment in the life of the country, to consider what it means for each of us. We value service at St Edward’s, and the Queen served us all.
Over the coming days, we will celebrate her life and we will honour her memory – as we are in the Quad this morning, all of us standing together.
St Edward’s pupils and staff gathered in the Quad for a service of remembrance