Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Debate between Lord Kennedy of Southwark and Viscount Trenchard

Saturday 10th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, like other Members of the House, I thank Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her service to our United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. Honour, duty and the service of Her Majesty have been spoken of movingly over these two days of tributes. I thought the Leader of the House and the Leader of the Opposition set the tone wonderfully with their beautiful speeches yesterday.

When I go to an education centre or visit a school, I am usually asked, “Have you met the Queen?” I have to say that no, I have not; but I have had the enormous privilege and honour of being a Member of this House, being here at State Openings and watching Her Majesty’s addresses from the Throne. It is a real privilege that all Members have had.

We all know of Her Majesty’s love of horses and horse-racing. We have seen the joy on her face when she has had a winner at a meeting she was attending. We have also seen her attend many other sporting events. What many in the House may not know is that Her Majesty’s first football match was on 9 April 1945 as the young Princess Elizabeth, in her service uniform. It was the Football League War Cup South Final. The match was Millwall v Chelsea and, surprisingly, my team Millwall lost 2-0. Millwall was playing in blue and white, having been founded by Scotsmen who had come down from the east of Scotland to work in the docks.

We know of Her Majesty’s love of Scotland, her United Kingdom and our brotherhood of nations. One of her legacies that we need to work to ensure is that the United Kingdom remains united.

I endorse the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, who is in her place, and my noble friend Lady McIntosh of Hudnall about Her Majesty’s support for the arts. She, along with her husband Prince Philip, took great interest in the campaign led by Sam Wanamaker to raise funds to build a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe, close to the original site at Bankside in Southwark. It was to the great joy of everyone involved in the campaign—I was involved to some extent—that Her Majesty opened the replica theatre on 12 June 1997.

My heritage is Irish: I am second-generation Irish, born to Irish parents here in London nearly 60 years ago. I have a great love of Ireland and everything Irish. The noble Baroness, Lady Coussins, and my noble friend Lord Anderson of Swansea, among others, recalled in their speeches Her Majesty’s state visit to Ireland which was, as we all know, a tremendous success. It was the first visit to the Irish Republic by a reigning monarch since 1911, when it was of course part of the United Kingdom. She visited several significant sites, including Croke Park. As we have heard, a few opening words of her address at the state banquet were in Gaelic. It was a memorable visit: a truly great success of a great monarch and diplomat, recognising our countries’ shared history—some of it difficult, but moving forward together in partnership.

I also recall the television pictures of Her Majesty shaking hands with the Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, in June 2012. I remember the smiles and thinking, “What progress has been made!” It was an historic event in itself that would have been unimaginable some years earlier.

We are all so fortunate to have lived during the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, a remarkable woman and our greatest monarch. Her legacy lives on and we should honour her by doing everything we can to ensure that it endures.

[Viscount Trenchard (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to be able to follow the impressive and interesting tribute by the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy of Southwark. Indeed, after hearing so many excellent tributes by so many noble Lords, it is difficult to find something new or interesting to say which has not already been said. I had hesitated to put my name down to make a tribute, but then I thought it was actually my duty to make a contribution.

After all, I am proud to have been involved in three organisations of which Her late Majesty was the titular head. She was colonel-in-chief of the Royal Green Jackets, air commodore-in-chief of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and patron of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund. At first hand, I have seen how seriously she took her responsibilities for these organisations and how genuine was her interest in all of them. She made everyone involved in them feel better all the time and, of course, did the same for so many other organisations.

As my noble friend the Lord Privy Seal said in his moving tribute yesterday, no one ever questioned her work ethic. Her devotion to duty was absolute and never faltered throughout her long reign. She made all those who were fortunate enough to cross her path feel better about the world and themselves. She was always a calming influence.

The British people are sentimental about animals and very many love dogs, as did the Queen. My late mother-in-law was lucky enough to come to own two of the legendary “dorgis”, Lockett and Whitty. They were faithful companions during the final years of her life. The Queen’s qualities of loyalty and faithfulness had rubbed off on the dogs she bred.

Her knowledge and expertise in breeding dogs was exceeded only by her prowess as a breeder of horses. My noble friend Lord Shrewsbury and others have spoken of her expertise in equine matters. Many of your Lordships will have seen the pure joy that seeing a horse that she had bred win on the racecourse brought her. I was glad to hear Nicky Henderson speak of that on the radio this morning.

Although we have known that her reign would not go on for ever, the depth of her presence in the life of our nation was such that, at the same time, we did not believe that it would not continue for just a bit longer. We almost came to believe that she was immortal. Now that we have lost her, we realise even more how much we valued her. The whole nation is deeply saddened and shaken by the huge significance of the ending of the second Elizabethan age. Multitudes of people around the world, citizens of her realms, of Commonwealth countries and of other lands, whose regard for this country has ever been strengthened by their admiration for its monarch, similarly mourn her passing.

The thousands of people thronging out of Green Park station yesterday led me to walk with them across the park up to Buckingham Palace, to experience how they were thinking and to marvel at the deep affection in which they held our late Queen. How lucky we are to have a constitutional monarchy, which provides a higher power with which we can all identify, irrespective of background, politics and other differences. An elected president with a limited term can never serve as a symbol of the ultimate unity of the nation and its people.

All of us who sit in your Lordships’ House are privileged to be able to pay tribute to our wonderful, late and great Queen and to offer our sincere condolences to His Majesty the King and the other members of the Royal Family, as they turn the page and a new chapter in our nation’s story begins. May she rest in peace. God save the King.