A Moment of Reflection

The School community gathered together this morning in the Wolfenden Sports Hall, to take a moment to collectively mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

Staff and pupils heard from Head Jane Lunnon, School Chaplain Reverend Liz Lander, and School Captain Nana-Yaw, before all present stood for a minute of silent reflection to remember the Queen.

A transcript of the Head's words follows below.

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"Those of you who are doing English A Level may be familiar with this quotation from one of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. Prince Hamlet, the protagonist, is recalling his recently deceased father, who was also King, and this is what he says: “He was a goodly king…take him for all in all. We shall not look upon his like again.”

I found that phrase in my mind when I was watching the news last night. All those tributes to Queen Elizabeth II and the reflections on her extraordinary life. Let’s just change the gender: it could be her: “she was a goodly queen, we shall not look upon her like again.”

The truth is, we have all had the great good fortune of living through the second Elizabethan age, and I rather like the symmetry of the fact that here we all are, at Alleyn’s School, established, by our founder, Ned Alleyn, in the first Elizabethan age, acknowledging this moment of history together. There are 500 years between the Elizabethan eras, but both are characterised by the reigns of strong, dedicated, and quite extraordinary women.

Much has been written (and will be written) about the passing of the Queen and what it means for us as a nation. We have lost a monarch, yes, which is constitutionally important and may well have political significance too. But we have lost much more than that. The death of Elizabeth II marks the end of an era.  It deprives Britain of a thread that wove the nation together, and linked it to its past. The vast majority of people in this country have never known another monarch – those 70 years of reigning and the 96 years of her life, of course, span nearly a century. Born in 1926, she was part of a different, unrecognisable world. She grew up during the searingly formative years of the Second World War and thus she tied us to many of the key qualities of that past, lost world: the great fight for the freedom of our country for one thing. A time when values like duty, service, dignity and sacrifice were part of everyday language and were completely critical to the victory of the allies in the 2^nd world war. The Queen’s voice, on the wireless, ending Children’s Hour:  “goodnight children, wherever you are”, is one of the things my mother, herself a very young evacuee from South London in 1940, vividly remembered. It was one of the many reasons why my mother and others of her generation, respected, admired and loved their monarch and believed so deeply in what she represented.

So, she linked us to our past. But much more than that, she linked us to the best of the present. To the best of ourselves perhaps. Because she was unfailingly and unstintingly herself. The loss we feel now, is not just the loss of a head of state, nor the loss of a historic figure. We feel the loss of an extraordinary and dedicated human. A woman who made a vow, when she was still very young, to give her whole life to the service of her country: “Throughout all of my life, and with all of my heart, I will strive to be worthy of your service” – she promised on the eve of her Coronation. And she duly did just that. Her sense of service, her absolute and unfailing sacrifice of herself to the role – is why she has been so widely loved. How moving that she always signed her letters: “your servant, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Precisely!

No-one thought, when she was born in April 1926, that this would be her destiny. It was her uncle’s unexpected abdication and then her father’s early and sudden death, that propelled her to the crown when she was only 25. Only a few years older than some of you here. This was not a role she was brought up to do, nor one that she sought or wished for. But she took it on. And she did it with her whole heart and soul. When we consider her work, her selflessness, her duty, so tirelessly and unstintingly given, we can feel, for sure, that we have had an example of greatness in front of us. She worked until her very last days – receiving her 15^th and last PM only 2 days before she died.

She was very clear that part of what sustained her was her Christian faith. Her role as the Head of the Church of England was critical to her and it enabled her to do her duty right to the end. Some of you might have seen the image of Windsor Castle with the flag at half mast, just after the news had been announced of her passing, and a rainbow in the background. The beautiful words from St Mathew’s gospel: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things,” feel apt for the woman who made the very most of her talents and was steadfast in sharing them. Even at the end, after losing her much loved husband and consort of 73 years, she continued and she carried on.

So, we mourn the loss of the monarch with due sadness but with gratitude too, for a life fully accomplished and remarkably well-lived. We can all be profoundly proud of and grateful for her service; for all she stood for and all she meant to so many people across the country and across the world. I'd like to end with her words in two quotations which span her long reign:

Firstly, her words in the Coronation broadcast in 1957:

I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

And I suspect all of us will remember her words in her 2020 broadcast, mid Covid:

“We will be with our friends again. We will be with our families again. We will meet again.”  Your Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, all here at Alleyn’s hope, very much, that that is now true for you."

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