Motion of Condolence
We come to the motion of condolence, motion S1M-2962, in the name of Jack McConnell.
As First Minister and on behalf of the Scottish Labour party, I will move the motion of condolence.
It is with great sadness that we meet here today to convey our sincere condolences to the members of the royal family on the death on Easter Saturday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. In doing so, we express our special sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen, who now mourns the loss both of her beloved mother and of her younger sister in the space of a few short weeks. Our thoughts are with Her Majesty the Queen at such a difficult and painful time. The grief of the royal family is shared by members of the Parliament and by people across Scotland.
We meet during a period of national mourning, but this special meeting of Scotland's Parliament should also be a celebration of the life of a remarkable woman, because she herself celebrated life in so many ways. Over the past few days, much has been written and said about the Queen Mother. We have gained insights into her life and have been struck by the magnitude of her contribution to her family and to so many others. The size and scale of their loss is a measure of the life that she lived and of the many admirable qualities that she displayed so tirelessly in times of difficulty and in times of happiness.
Hers was a life lived in public service. From the 14-year-old girl whose family home offered comfort and care to soldiers cruelly wounded in war, to the wife and mother standing alongside others in London during times of great danger, to the too-early loss of her beloved husband, her qualities of fortitude, personal strength and compassion for others shone through. It is therefore right that, in mourning her loss, we give thanks for her life of public service and celebrate her special legacy.
Her life spanned a century—a century of remarkable achievement by humankind and a century of terrible suffering and struggle. In her lifetime, air flight and air travel became not only possible but commonplace, advances in communication brought people closer and brought the world's triumphs and pains into all our homes. Other great changes took place: votes for women, the end of the British empire and the creation of the United Nations and the national health service. It was a century of mass suffering, but it was also a century of achievement. Her life marked good times and bad. It was a life dedicated to the service of others.
In the Parliament and across Scotland, we can be especially proud that the Queen Mother saw her roots as being in our country. She spent her childhood at Glamis Castle, spent time at Balmoral and, from the 1950s, found a special peace at her own Castle of Mey in Caithness. To each of these, she returned time and again. She knew local people, was keenly interested in their lives and their prospects and developed in those places her love of the outdoors and all its activities—a love that added to the richness of the life that she made for herself and others.
She will be remembered by Scots for her role as patron of many Scottish organisations and charities and particularly for the close interest that she took in their activities and the people whom they sought to help. She was never simply a name on the letterhead. Her interests ranged across the arts, education, health and the countryside. She was patron of the National Trust for Scotland for almost 50 years. She was also patron of the Edinburgh International Festival and of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Her interest extended to local groups, too: she was involved in the Robert Service Society in Kilwinning in Ayrshire, for example. She was also the first chancellor of the University of Dundee.
Her interest in young people is illustrated by her patronage of the royal hospitals for sick children in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Her concern for those with disabilities led her to support the Scottish Disability Foundation and, here in Edinburgh, the Thistle Foundation. Her special compassion for those who defend was shown by her interest in the welfare of ex-servicemen and by the pride that she took as colonel-in-chief of the Black Watch regiment.
Even at the age of 101, she carried out more than 50 public engagements in a year—engagements that she enjoyed rather than felt obliged to see through. In each and every case, the lives of others would be richer and happier as a result. We mark today a life made rich by the energy and vitality that she brought to it over all her years and a life made meaningful by her commitment to help and to serve others.
As we saw in the interview that Prince Charles gave, however, the Queen Mother was more than a public figure. She was a mother and a much-loved grandmother and great-grandmother. Throughout the years, her family was where she put much of her energy and care and from where she drew her strength and support.
The Queen Mother represents a generation of British women, from miners' wives to royalty, who saw husbands, brothers and sons die in two world wars, who led families through economic and social change and who knew the value of life, of community, of family and of beliefs. We mourn her loss. In giving thanks for her life, we can do no better than to dedicate anew our energy to follow her example of strength in the difficult times, compassion for others and commitment to public service.
She had Scotland in her heart, and Scots everywhere will retain a place in their hearts for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. For her life of dedication to duty, her service to others and for the way in which she loved life itself, we today give thanks.
I move,
That the Parliament expresses its deep regret and sadness at the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, conveys its sincere condolences to Her Majesty The Queen and other members of the Royal Family in their sad bereavement, affirms the great affection and esteem in which Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother was held, and expresses gratitude for her life of outstanding public service and her long and close association with Scotland and the Scottish people.
On behalf of the Scottish National Party, I associate myself with the motion and express our sincere condolences to members of the royal family on the death of the Queen Mother.
Amid all the local, national and international commentary, this is, first and foremost, a time of great sadness for those who were closest to the Queen Mother. In the space of a few short weeks, the Queen has lost her sister and her mother. That happened in a year—her golden jubilee—that marks the 50th anniversary of her father's death. Anyone who has ever lost a loved one will know the private agony that the Queen endures, but none of us can understand the strain of enduring that private agony in the dramatic public gaze of today.
The Queen Mother lived through a turbulent and remarkable age. The many tributes that have been paid and the range of photographs and images that have been printed over the past few days are testament to the profound changes that took place during her long life. As a young woman, she was tragically touched—as were millions of others—by the horrors of the first world war, losing a brother who served in the Black Watch regiment, of which, I am sure with some pain, she became colonel-in-chief in later years. Just over 20 years later, the world was at war again. It is perhaps through the images of the then Queen comforting families who had been bombed out of their homes in London and elsewhere that she will be remembered most vividly.
The Queen Mother's was a life of public service. It was a life led to the full and it was a life that was closely associated with Scotland. Her family had deep and profound links with the village of Glamis and its castle in the constituency that I have the privilege to represent in this Parliament. When I visited the village on Monday, I was struck by the feelings of warmth and affection felt towards the Queen Mother by the local community and by visitors who had travelled from far and wide to be there.
In the Queen Elizabeth room, situated just alongside where the book of condolence was being signed, the immensely talented castle staff at Glamis had assembled an outstanding pictorial history of the Queen Mother's life. It captured early moments in her life, her marriage, the start of her family, the enormous change when her husband became King and the many years of her public service. It also captured private moments and frivolous moments, out and about in Glamis and the Angus glens. It gave due account of the formality of her life, but it also gave a vivid illustration of the informality of the life for which many in Glamis will remember her.
Her highland upbringing was evident in various ways. She was a dedicated public servant. She upheld values of dignity and respect. She had legendary sporting interests in the horses and as a keen angler. It was interesting over the weekend to read that some of her happiest times were spent fishing here in Scotland, on the River Dee and further north on the River Thurso. Her grandson, the Prince of Wales, said that he would remember the Queen Mother for her infectious optimism. As all Scottish anglers know, infectious optimism is sometimes hard to sustain. However, instilling optimism in others is surely a worthy and fitting way in which to be remembered. We remember a life devoted to public service and a life inspired by many of the enduring strengths of Scotland today.
I convey on behalf of my party my sincere condolences to the members of the Queen Mother's family, especially the Queen. I support the motion moved by the First Minister.
I associate the Scottish Conservative members of this Parliament and the Scottish Conservative party with the motion of condolence moved by the First Minister on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. As has been said, her death is particularly poignant, coming as it does so soon after that of her daughter, Princess Margaret, and in the year of the Queen's golden jubilee.
The Queen Mother's legacy is of a lifetime of impeccable service to our nation, in peace and in war. She will rightly be remembered as one of the greatest and most loved Scots of all time. Her family, the Bowes-Lyons, could claim descent from Robert the Bruce and that Scottish background was instrumental in the formation of her remarkable strength of character. She was proud of her roots and, as has been said, retained many connections with Scotland throughout her lifetime. Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle—the first royal birth in Scotland since the 17th century—and it was to the Castle of Mey in Caithness that the Queen Mother returned following the death of her husband King George VI.
We pay tribute, as has the First Minister, to the many Scottish organisations with which she was associated throughout her lifetime and the services that she rendered to them. Her love of Scotland was expressed not just by the official duties she performed, but by her many regular visits to Scotland and by her obvious enjoyment of the Scottish countryside and country pursuits.
The key to the enormous popularity of the Queen Mother, both in this country and throughout the world, is not hard to fathom. Throughout her long and distinguished lifetime, which spanned the whole of the 20th century, she embodied the virtues that we most admire in others. She provided a reassuring constancy in a century of breathtaking technological changes and momentous political events.
We should always remember that the responsibility of being Queen was not something for which she had been prepared or that she had expected or sought; it was a responsibility that was thrust upon her by events. The fact that she rose so magnificently to that enormous challenge and provided such steadfast support to her husband, King George VI, was a tribute to her sense of duty and to her steely resolve. Those qualities were also in evidence in the way in which she coped with the death of her husband and, more recently, that of her younger daughter. It is typical of her determination and commitment that she was so insistent on attending the funeral of Princess Margaret, regardless of her own frailty.
To those who lived through the war, her refusal to leave London at the height of the blitz cemented her place in the hearts of the British people and made the King and Queen the focus of national unity at a time when this country stood alone against the forces of darkness and evil. However, throughout her public life she set an example from which all generations can learn and that strengthened the institution of the monarchy and demonstrated its importance and value as a unifying force. In Prince Charles's moving tribute to his grandmother, he alluded to her love of life and people and to her wonderful sense of humour. That quality in particular shone through, even for those who did not have the privilege of knowing or meeting her, and explains the universal affection in which she was held.
The fact that her exemplary life has now come to an end is a source of profound sadness for many millions of people, but particularly for her family. Our sympathies are with the Queen, to whom she was a devoted mother and wise counsel, Prince Charles and all the other members of the royal family. We are the poorer for her passing, but the richer for her life. We should reflect with pride on the life of service that she led and on the inspiration and encouragement that she gave to so many people. She was a woman of her time and for all our times. For four generations, the Queen Mother was always with us and now she will always be with us in our memories.
On behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, I wish to add my support for the motion before the chamber and to echo the words of condolence on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
We properly reflect on a long life and celebrate a life lived to the full—not only a very public life, but one in which the values and warmth of family life were so obviously treasured. Any of us who has felt the loss of a much-loved grandparent could not help but be moved by the very personal tribute that Prince Charles paid to his grandmother on Monday. Today, our thoughts and prayers are very much with the Queen, the Duke of Rothesay and the Queen Mother's other grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
We also feel a sense of national loss, not least in Scotland. The Queen Mother took great pride in her Scottish roots. As the daughter of a Scottish earl, she spent much of her childhood at Glamis and never seemed happier than when she was at home in the Scottish countryside, following her love of outdoor pursuits. She spent a great deal of time at Birkhall on Royal Deeside and at the Castle of Mey in Caithness.
As we have heard, she had many other, varied associations with Scotland, ranging from being colonel-in-chief of the Black Watch to giving active and knowledgeable support to the Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society. As Duchess of York, she and the Duke of York opened Aberdeen royal infirmary; as Queen, she launched the Queen Elizabeth from the Clydeside of the 1930s; and, as Queen Mother, she opened the Tay road bridge in 1966. She had a natural affinity with Scotland and in return enjoyed the great affection of the people of Scotland.
That affinity ran deeper than specific engagements, however important, or simple royal patronage. The Queen Mother was not someone who was content just to collect titles. Her involvement in organisations invariably meant a keen and active interest. I know that for the Queen Mother, becoming patron of the Friends of St Magnus Cathedral, which is in my constituency, involved a real and lasting interest in the life of that magnificent building. The Queen Mother was a real source of encouragement to those who, at a critical time, had to raise funds to restore and maintain the building's fabric.
If I were to highlight two special qualities of the Queen Mother, they would be a real commitment to public service and a rare ability to touch lives in a way that lifted the spirits of those whom she met. Those qualities came together during the dark days of world war two. Our Scottish Parliament is young not only in terms of its existence, but in terms of the average age of its members. Most of us were not born at the end of world war two and we can have no memory of just how difficult those days must have been. However, a collective national memory exists—for example, last year we had a debate in the Parliament to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the blitz on Clydebank. The indefatigable support that Queen Elizabeth gave to her husband, King George VI, and to the country forms part of that national memory. She raised spirits by meeting victims of bombing raids and in every sense embodied the national spirit of hope and defiance. She had not sought that duty, but she carried it out with exemplary commitment and dignity. In her latter years, the secret of the respect and affection that she continued to enjoy can be attributed to her interest in people and what they did.
Let us not forget that we are marking the life of someone who was born in the reign of Queen Victoria—when the motor car was a rare sight, the Wright brothers had not yet flown and Sherlock Holmes's adventures were the bestsellers of the day. In her 101 years, the Queen Mother not only lived through two world wars, but witnessed the age of space travel, supersonic flight and traffic gridlock. As recently as last November—according to one newspaper report—she was engaging in conversation about the Harry Potter novels.
I well recall a visit that she made to Orkney at the age of 92. She arrived by helicopter to look round the Flotta oil terminal. I remember the real interest that she took in the operation of the terminal and in those who worked there. The visit was stimulated by a lively curiosity to find out what went on underneath the gas flare that she could see from the Castle of Mey.
That lively curiosity and the wish to keep in touch across the generations contributed to an infectious zest for living, which she communicated readily to her family, the countless thousands of people whom she met and, beyond them, the nation as a whole.
Today we share the sorrow of those who mourn and give thanks for a long life of gracious service, which surely enriched our nation.
Motion agreed to.
Meeting closed at 12:21.