SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN TRIBUTE TO HER LATE MAJESTY THE QUEEN on Friday 9th September 2022
Across the length and breadth of my constituency of Clwyd South, people have paid heartfelt tribute to Her Late Majesty The Queen.
Part of what made her so special was her combination of majesty and modesty which made her both a remarkable Head of State and an approachable person whom millions of people have enjoyed meeting or seeing at close quarters at home and abroad.
In Clwyd South people have been recalling her many visits over the years including to Corwen in 1949 when she was still Princess Elizabeth and then to Llangollen in 1953 in her post-coronation tour when she attended the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod and took a trip on the Llangollen Steam Railway.
These visits continued over the years to Overton on Dee, Wrexham and elsewhere and in all cases people felt a special connection with this smiling, friendly and unassuming monarch supported so magnificently by Prince Philip.
Unlike many members present, I never had the honour of meeting The Queen in person but I am very proud that my mother and I shared our birthday with Her Majesty on 21st April.
Also, as a small boy in 1964, I remember the excitement in my own family when my father commanded the Queen’s Guard at Balmoral and we all spent the summer staying in Ballater while he carried out his official duties supported by my mother. Like everyone else that I have met who served the Queen in an official capacity, my father thought the world of her.
As has been mentioned many times today in the House, yesterday there were rainbows over both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and I like to think of her reign as a rainbow of dedicated service overarching my life and that of the nation.
And I felt this most strongly in the wonderful address she gave to the nation in April two years ago at the start of the Covid crisis in which she said:
“The moments when the United Kingdom has come together to applaud its care and essential workers will be remembered as an expression of our national spirit; and its symbol will be the rainbows drawn by children.”
The Queen embodied our national spirit with her great sense of community, kindness and dedicated service for which we will be eternally grateful.
My thoughts and prayers, like those of my constituents in Clwyd South, are with her beloved family.
God save her soul. God save The King and bless The Prince and Princess of Wales.
You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss9A-19uS00
