In Memoriam: Queen Elizabeth
By Peter Adams ‘24
On Thursday, September 8th, 2022, the United Kingdom, and the whole world, said goodbye to the queen they had for nearly seventy-one years. Following her passing, then prime minister, Liz Truss, said of the late queen: “She was the very spirit of Great Britain—and that spirit will endure.” This was said in a speech from 10 Downing Street, the home of the Prime Minister (similar to the United States’ White House), following the announcement of the queen’s passing, just two days after Truss had met the queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor unexpectedly became the heir to the British throne following the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII, and ascension of her father George VI to the throne in December of 1936. She became queen in 1952 when her father passed, while she was in Kenya on a tour of the commonwealth with her husband the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. (The tour was cut short following the king’s passing). She was crowned queen sixteen months later.
Elizabeth loyally served her country, before her reign when she was a driver in the second world war, and during her reign as she helped navigate the kingdom from the transition of empire to commonwealth, and many other changes in the kingdom. Elizabeth leaves behind her children: King Charles III, Anne: Princess Royal, Prince Andrew: Duke of York, Prince and Edward: Earl of Essex, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
