Although I have lived in the USA for just over forty years, I still consider myself a Brit and get very nostalgic when I think of my homeland. Yesterday was therefore a very sad one. I never met Her Majesty but I was very moved by her passing. I was only 13 months old when she became Queen and two and a half when she was crowned. My parents owned the only television in the village, but I do not remember the event though I know we all watched the coronation. My parents told me that I was enthralled and for once was quiet! I do recall seeing Winston Churchill’s 80th birthday celebrations which were televised in November the following year. I even remember the TV, which was the size of a wardrobe, with a tiny little screen less than a foot long peering bashfully out of it.

It all seems so long ago. On her accession, Paul McCartney was only nine. Both my grandmothers had been born during the reign of Queen Victoria and both were older than the Queen Mother who was born in 1900.

Until yesterday the Queen had been on the throne for nearly all of my life. In her reign, there were plenty of ups and downs some caused by wayward members of her family but, somehow she came through unscathed and undiminished.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

I was one year behind Charles at Cambridge. Indeed, I nearly had to conduct an orchestral rehearsal in which he was playing the cello . How do you tell a prince that he might work on his tuning?

It will take me some time to get used to singing ‘God save the King’ and to think of King Charles having only two legs not four. He has a daunting task ahead of him in a world that is so different to that his mother knew seventy years ago. I wish him well and a long and happy reign.

VIVAT REX.