Largan column: 'The Queen was the very embodiment of Britain'

High Peak MP Robert Largan pays his own tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following her passing at the age of 96.

When I was 20, my grandma fell seriously ill. She was undergoing emergency surgery and we knew she only had a very slim chance of survival. I vividly remember that long day, waiting for the bad news to come. 

On Thursday, as the nation collectively held its breath, waiting for news from Balmoral, I found myself thinking back to my grandma and that long day all those years ago. That’s because, in many ways, Her Majesty The Queen was a grandmother to the entire nation. 

She has been the one constant in all of our lives. A smiling, reassuring, comforting presence. The familiar figure we turned to in moments of national celebration and, indeed, of grief and uncertainty. 

Her Majesty The Queen has often been called a symbol of national unity. But she was so much more than that. She has been, for seven decades, the very embodiment of Britain. We are all Elizabethans. 

Her first Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, was born in 1874. Her fifteenth and final Prime Minister, Liz Truss, was born 101 years later in 1975. In her lifetime of unparalleled dedication and service, she personified a remarkable institutional memory. In her actions, she exemplified restraint, duty, grace, reticence, persistence and faith. Qualities that I hope will never go out of fashion. 

As Her Majesty said, grief is the price we pay for love. The outpouring of grief we feel now reflects the love we all had for our Sovereign and the love she showed for all of us. 

Our collective despair is also, in part, driven by our fear for the future. A future without the matriarch of the nation, who will rightly be remembered as Elizabeth the Great. 

Her Majesty was the glue that kept our Constitutional Monarchy, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth together. But it is important to remember that beyond being our Head of State, Her Majesty was a wife, a mother, a grandmother and great-grandmother. 

His Majesty King Charles III has benefitted from learning from the example of one of the greatest monarchs in the over one thousand year history of the Crown. His Majesty is a grieving son but he has already commenced his duties. 

God Save The King!