As a nation, we mourn the passing of our Monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

We remember her remarkable life and give thanks for her unfaltering and dedicated 70 years of public service. My thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences go to the Royal Family for their personal loss.

For those across this nation and our Commonwealth, we have lost our Head of State. Her late Majesty was a devoted public servant who put her duty to this country and Commonwealth before all others.

Her late Majesty visited our Bexhill and Battle constituency on a number of occasions. To mark the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in October 1966, she visited Pevensey, where William and the Norman army first landed in England before marching to Senlac Hill in Battle to fight King Harold and his army at the Battle of Hastings. To mark that event, the Queen visited St. Mary’s Church in Battle. She has since been a patron of that same church. Her tour of Sussex in 1966 also included a visit to the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. The following year, Her late Majesty visited the Royal Observatory at Herstmonceux. It was Her late Majesty’s father who gave royal consent for the Observatory to relocate from Greenwich to the constituency in 1946 due to the light pollution in London. She took a keen interested in the relocation.  

For many, we are not just mourning a glorious reign of public service for the last 70 years. We are also mourning the loss of the one constant to have glued together our past and the present. She represented the historic traditions of the past but also sought to champion and support the ideas of the future and the generations to come.   She is an example that it is indeed possible to respect the past, live in the present but always look ahead with optimism to the future. 

May Her late Majesty rest in peace.  God Save the King.