The sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is keenly felt by everybody throughout West Oxfordshire and beyond. For every one of us in the United Kingdom, this is a moment of deep grief and, most profoundly, the end of an era.
Aged 21, Her Majesty said “My whole life, whether it be short or long, will be devoted to your service.”
Throughout her 70 years of service to the nation she always put our country first, becoming the very personification of dedication and duty.
During this time she saw immense change and challenge, and not once did she falter. The Queen’s first Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was born in 1874, 101 years before her last PM, Liz Truss, who was born in 1975. Those two worlds are so different as to be almost unrecognisable - and yet Her Majesty was equally at home in both.
As we mourn the passing of our finest monarch and remember a remarkable life, my thoughts and those of everybody in West Oxfordshire are with the Royal Family as we enter into this period of national mourning.
But, above all, we say thank you to Her Majesty:
For always putting our country and the Commonwealth first.
For being the unifying constant in all our lives.
For always finding the right words.
For everything she has done and everything she has achieved.
For devoting her life to us.
Truly, Elizabeth the Great.
And whilst we realise the truth of the words of Her Majesty herself “the price of love is grief,” it is with hope that we look to a sure future of service and dedication from her devoted son, King Charles III, and as with countless ages past we rally with the timeless words:
God save the King.
Robert Courts MP
Member of Parliament for Witney & West Oxfordshire