My Take | The devotion to duty that defined the queen’s life is still much needed

My parents celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary this month. Pride of place, on the table at a celebratory lunch, was a card bearing a picture of an elderly woman in a hat smiling for the camera. That woman was, of course, the queen and the card was one of thousands sent each year on her behalf.

Sadly, it would have been among the last to bear her name. The death of Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest reigning monarch, last week is more than the end of an era. The 96 years of her life, including seven decades on the throne, coincided with a period of unprecedented change.

My parents were schoolchildren when Elizabeth became queen in 1952. I remember, when a child myself in 1977, attending a street party to mark her silver jubilee. This was two years after her first visit to Hong Kong. More recently, many will recall the queen’s uplifting address during the darkest days of pandemic lockdowns, rekindling the spirit of the second world war with her assurance that “we will meet again”.

She has always been there, through good times and bad, a source of comfort and continuity, a living link with the past. The news of her death felt disorientating. It will not be easy to get used to life without her.

Britain is now in mourning. Church bells rang and guns fired salutes. Crowds flocked to lay flowers at royal residences. Some shops closed and football matches were cancelled. But the country did not come to a standstill. For many, it was business as usual.

The period of mourning will give people time to get used to the idea that Britain is now entering what has been described as the new Carolean age. The national anthem becomes God Save the King. Senior British barristers are now King’s Counsel rather than QCs.