CITY councillors paid their own tribute to the Queen during a sombre meeting at the Guildhall.
Members of Worcester City Council gathered following the city’s proclamation of the new King Charles III on Sunday (September 11)
After a rousing speech from Mayor of Worcester Coun Adrian Gregson’s orator Ian Craigan, councillors observed a minute’s silence in memory of Her Majesty.
Speaking to a motion to offer the council’s sympathies for the death of the Queen and to confirm the city’s loyalty to the crown, Coun Gregson began the debate and said the scenes of the Queen’s coffin leaving Balmoral ‘brought home the Queen had died and we are living in a momentous part of our national history’.
“I grew up with the Queen, my parents camped out in the rain to see the Coronation, my grandmother had a 100th birthday card from her. Christmas message was de riger in our household,” he said.
“For my generation, without the shackles of a wartime memory, she was an important element of constitutional study, of TV news and of sporting events.
“We call ourselves the Faithful City, our engagement with the Royal family is both direct and obvious.
“As a seven-year-old put it on the TV ‘she’s the only Queen I have ever known’ – if you are seven or 70 that will surely remain the case,” Coun Gregson added.
Council leader Coun Marc Bayliss rose to acclaim the Queen and said she was ‘loved and cherished’ across the country but no more so than in ‘her Faithful City’.
“She was a constant in an era of change, her late Majesty was the hub around which all events span.”
“It is still difficult to imagine our country without her gentle guidance.”
Green Party leader Coun Louis Stephen spoke emotionally not of the pomp but reflected on the memories shared by MPs.
“That she (the Queen) was such a strong female voice must surely have been an inspiration across the country and world that they too can have a leadership role,” he said.
Former Mayor of Worcester Coun Jabba Riaz spoke as the son of a migrant and said his father often reminded him the Queen embodied all of the values shown by those who first came to this country following the partition.
An emotional Coun Mel Allcott thanked the Queen for ‘being there’ for her country, especially with her message to the nation at the start of the Covid lockdown.
Coun Lucy Hodgson shared her memories of the day the Queen visited the Hive in 2012 and a fellow former Mayor of the city Coun Pat Agar said the monarch embodied ‘family values’.
Coun Richard Udall closed the debate and said: “It doesn’t matter if you are a Royalist or not, we are all human.”
