It is with the greatest sadness that I have to write here about the death today of The Queen – she died at her beloved Balmoral earlier this afternoon bringing an end to a 70 year reign of duty and service to her country and the Commonwealth – even to the World

She was probably the most famous person in the whole world.

I have vivid memories of the death of her Father King George V1 in February 1952 because as a child, my father and brothers and sister and I had, only days before this, lost our own mother – an event that defined our lives and devastated our family – and probably still does to this day.

We had only just got a Television and there was, then only one channel BBC, and this closed down for a few days and sombre music was played as seemed fitting.

As readers of this Blog will know one of my own favourite films is ‘The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men’ released only days after these events – and I wonder if this is why I remember it so well and the events of the time. As Princess Elizabeth, she actually visited Denham Film Studios to spend a day watching this film being made and stood quietly at the side of one of those huge sound stages while filming was done. She also was taken on a tour of some of the outside sets, by Walt Disney in the summer of 1951

Sadly I don’t have any pictures of this – but I have always thought that, with The Queen’s excellent memory, if I had been lucky enough to talk to her she would have been able to tell me much about Denham Studios and this film,

She did though before this, visit Ealing Studios with her sister Princess Margaret and we do have photographs of that

I have always imagined that the Queen would be a big film fan and here she – when she was still Princess Elizabeth – is visiting the Studios – in this case Ealing Studios – to see something of the making of ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ which was released here in early April of 1947 – so it would be fair to say that this picture was taken during the summer of 1946 – not long after the War.

I honestly could never imagine having to write this article – Her Majesty seemed such a constant in our lives – we felt we all knew her – and she was someone who commanded the ultimate respect from everyone from the World over.

I have included some Photographs below which I hope show her at her best – with her husband and family.

The Queen just loved her long summer holidays up at Balmoral where it is said that she was at her happiest