“Our local communities in Torridge and West Devon, as the whole of our nation, will be deeply moved and saddened by the death of Her Majesty, the Queen. She was the incarnation of the continuity and traditions of this country, its institutions, and its people, and she personified in her own dignity, self-sacrifice and devotion to duty, everything that is fine and distinguished about them. We, as her people, must feel a swelling pride that we, for so long, were represented by such a monarch, and that we were the special object of her life.
I met Her Majesty several times but on the last occasion, I had the great honour and privilege of being sworn in as a member of her Privy Council, in 2018, and spending a minute or two in conversation with her alone. My abiding recollection of that moment was the extraordinary moral stature and grace, acquired over a lifetime of service, that one felt in her presence.
This is a time for mourning our nation’s loss, for profound gratitude for the gift we were given of her life and for remembering Her Majesty and her family in our prayers.
May God rest Her Majesty. May God save the King.”
