SHE was born in the same year as my grandmother. And while both would grow to be formidable matriarchs, their lives could not have been more different.
Queen Elizabeth was born into the most privileged family on Earth, leaving the womb instantly wealthy, famous and with a life of riches and power ahead.
I saw the Queen as the glue that held together a tightly knit and historically intertwined modern Commonwealth
I saw the Queen as a woman who brought a modern Britain of all backgrounds together in unity
My Grandma had no such fortune. Born into a Kenya ruled by the British Empire and on the cusp of civil war, she had not a shilling to her name. A ramshackle mud house was her castle.
The only time Grandma and the Queen ever came close was when Elizabeth visited Kenya in 1952. Upon the sudden death of her father, a young Princess Elizabeth emerged from a safari lodge as Queen.
My homeland had a special place in the Queen’s heart for that very reason. And the Queen has a special place in my heart.
But I make an unlikely candidate for a royalist. As a young, black woman born in a former British colony, I might be expected to hold a disdain for the Royal Family.
Many people of my age and ethnicity saw the Queen as the ultimate symbol of the ills of imperialism.
I saw her as a physical representation of a world that has changed for the better in the 70 years she held the throne.
Many said she was a living reminder of British tyranny.
I saw her as the glue that held together a tightly knit and historically intertwined modern Commonwealth.
Many argue that the Royal Family is white supremacy in action.
I saw the Queen as a woman who brought a modern Britain, of all backgrounds, together in unity.
Just as I do not believe the misfortune I was born into should define my life, I also do not believe that the chequered history of a Britain ruled by her predecessors should define Queen Elizabeth’s legacy.
She inherited a nation crippled by World War Two, devoid of many rights we now take for granted.
A nation where someone like me would have virtually no chance of being able to live out their full potential.
Seven decades later, Britain is widely considered one of the fairest places in the world, with a comprehensive safety blanket for the country’s least well-off. Social mobility is a tangible prospect for those born into nothing.
And someone like me — the granddaughter of a rural farm worker born into destitution — can make it in this country.
While the Queen was not directly responsible for the decisions that transformed the country from the mid-20th Century darkness, to today’s beacon of progress, her influence cannot be overstated.
A miraculous, almost mythical, quality
She may have had no law-making powers, but she personally gave every bill passed by our Parliament the royal seal of approval and during her reign had weekly meetings with the 14 Prime Ministers she knew before Liz Truss.
She knighted hundreds of Britain’s best and brightest. She toured the globe advocating for our nation, undertaking thousands of royal engagements until well into her nineties.
She led the nation through tragedy, personal and national, and oversaw seismic changes in Britain’s role in the world.
The woman was extraordinary by every measure. As our longest-reigning monarch, she was truly the thread binding the tapestry of modern Britain.
Eight in ten people alive in this country today were born under her reign.
The Queen had a miraculous, almost mythical, quality about her that managed to unite the people of this country in a way no other individual or institution can.
Eight in ten people alive in Britain today were born under her reign
She managed to unite the people of this country in a way no other individual or institution can
I cannot think of a single figure I would want to be the personification of this great nation besides Queen Elizabeth II.
Even in 2022, when we are arguably crippled by more divisions than ever, the Queen enjoyed support from all corners of society.
A majority of the old, the young, the political Left and Right, the poor and the rich continued to say when polled that the Queen had done a good job during her time on the throne.
And let me tell you, it is quite the feat to be so extraordinary that you even win over Millennials and Gen Z-ers, who are some of the hardest anti-monarchists around and who want us all to live in an equality utopia where privilege is sacrilege.
People of my generation have lost touch with the importance of tradition, and their rebellious spirits would rather we live in anarchy than have a stable monarchy.
But despite these dodgy ideological sentiments, the young continued to think that the head of the most privileged family in the world — and arguably the very symbol of elitism in Britain — was doing a “good job”, according to YouGov polls. That is extraordinary.
The fact that more 18 to 24-year-olds still think the monarchy is good for Britain than those who think it bad — even in light of the Meghan Markle debacle and the Prince Andrew scandal — can only be put down to the unmatchable, undeniable dedication and calm authority Her Majesty maintained throughout her reign.
But I have always seen the Queen as much more than the ivory-tower leader many in my generation viewed her as. She was the girl who, when World War Two was won, sneaked out to party with the rest of Britain.
On VE Day night — May 8, 1945 — the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret sneaked out of Buckingham Palace in disguise, with the blessing of their father, to join the biggest street party the country had ever seen as millions of ordinary Brits celebrated our victory over the Nazis.
I have always seen the Queen as much more than the ivory-tower leader many in my generation viewed her as
The death of Her Majesty has plunged the country into mourning
The Queen was also the grandmother who, at a ripe old age, rode around like a gangster granny in her Land Rover and was brave enough to still hop on a horse.
She was the woman who every Christmas for nearly 70 years joined my family and countless others in their living rooms to share words of wisdom and comfort as we celebrated Christmas with our loved ones.
The right side of history
She might have been part of the most exclusive family, but still had a supernatural ability to feel like part of every family.
The death of Her Majesty has plunged the country into mourning.
But as we shed many tears over the loss of one of the greatest women the world has ever seen, let us celebrate what she represents — and what she leaves behind.
We are the legacy of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. We are the product of centuries of Britain in the making. We, the British people, are what Queen Elizabeth had spent decades of her life championing.
Who we are as a country makes me incredibly proud, just as it did Her Majesty. And it should make us all proud.
I once asked my late grandmother what she thought of Britain’s Royal Family.
Grandma might have been my family’s very own Queen Bee, but she still lived in a Kenya blighted by massive levels of inequality and poverty — where the legacy of colonialism continues to be felt.
Her answer, free from any bitterness or resentment, encapsulated what Queen Elizabeth’s Britain has been all about.
She simply said: “Well, just look at how far you’ve come. The Queen must be doing something right!”
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And that is the legacy I will take away and pass on to my children — that Britain under Elizabeth II was a Britain that became a fairer place, where someone from my background felt like an equal.
The world under Her Majesty changed for the better, and she was there on the right side of history the whole way through.
During her reign the Queen had weekly meetings with the 14 Prime Ministers she knew before Liz Truss
Did you miss our previous article...
https://thecelebreport.com/royalty/day-by-day-guide-to-the-queens-final-journey-from-scotland-to-london
