'Bastion of tradition': Lord-Lieutenant offers tributes to Queen Elizabeth II
The Lord-Lieutenant of the West Midlands has expressed his own sadness at the death of the Queen.
John Crabtree OBE also spoke of the wonderful support shown by the public and his memories of a person he described as having a real and genuine warmth.
Mr Crabtree was appointed by Her Majesty The Queen to be her representative and became Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands in January 2017, part of a long association he had had with the Queen starting in 1997.
He said his first experiences of her had been positive, with the Queen meeting people from across the community, and spoke about some of his personal experiences of her.
"I first met the Queen when she came to Birmingham Children's Hospital about 25 years ago and witnessed her meeting so many people at what was quite a long event," he said.
"I didn't realise it until I became Lord-Lieutenant how busy she had been that day, with visits to Castle Vale and Jaguar and organisations looking after young Muslim girls, and every time I had the privilege of being in her company, I saw how busy she was.
"One of the best occasions was going to the Royal Variety Performance at the Hippodrome and enjoying Ken Dodd, who was a favourite of hers, and the last time I saw her was at the launch of the Queens Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace in July last year.
"It was a difficult and challenging day as she had travelled down from Balmoral the day before and there were so many people there, but she was so engaged and excited about the Commonwealth Games and remorselessly committed to everything she did."
Mr Crabtree said the 2022 Commonwealth Games, for which he was the head of the organising committee, were a fitting monument to the Queen, saying that she had been a beacon for the Commonwealth and kept it together in changing times and with the challenges of empire and colonialism.
He said his own dealings with the Queen had always left him with a personal feeling of warmth, something he said she had generated with whoever she spoke to.
"In my dealings with her, there was always that complete dedication and professionalism and a huge capacity to want to meet people and always wanting to meet people," he said.
"All of her events were long and lengthy, as she would meet as many people as she could, and there was a real genuine warmth and I always saw humour, warmth, a beaming smile and a real determination to bring people together."
As for the Queen's legacy, Mr Crabtree said she was a bastion of tradition in a changing world and a reminder of how fortunate people in this country were to be British.
He said: "I'm an old lawyer in my day and I understand our constitution, and what you see in America at the moment is the written constitution and Donald Trump and the real schism that we're seeing now up there.
"In this country, we have an unwritten constitution and rely on conventions and tradition to make sure our judges are independent, to make sure the constitutional monarchy works, and I think the Queen stood as a bastion of tradition in a very changing world.
"I think what we are seeing now, with this outpouring of emotion and the tributes being paid, shows that people are taking time to reflect on how fortunate we are to be British."
