By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – Tributes have been broadcast from around the world after Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s longest-reigning monarch and the United Kingdom’s figurehead for seven decades, had died at the age of 96 on Thursday.
The views of Americans on the British Monarchy are many and often complicated, but to millions of her subjects, the loss of their Queen is like the loss of a beloved family member.
Within an hour of the announcement Thursday morning, we got a call from local businessman Mike Millar, owner of ASM Signs in Port Angeles. It was his idea to do a story where we check in with people in our community who are from the UK to get firsthand reactions to the news.
We invited Millar to drop by the radio station, and he came in straight away. He pointed out that Queen Elizabeth was coronated in 1952.
“The year before I was born, and that’s all I’ve known, is the Queen. That’s all I’ve known ever, and, you know, I mean, she represented everything about, you know, what we stood for in the country. The Royals, everything. I was fortunate. I worked, chauffeured, for a number of big people, and I got to meet, very, very closely, the royal family. They were in the…just feet away, from where we’re sitting right now, talking to you. I mean, we saw this morning that when the family was called to Balmoral. Balmoral’s up in Scotland. It’s the home, she likes going up there during the summer. I knew then this wasn’t just a visitation, you know, this is not just a matter of, as I said, somebody who’s sick. And sadly, sadly now, we’ve lost the mainstay of the family, Queen Elizabeth.”
When we reached out to Phil Castell, owner of Castell Insurance in Sequim, he was vacationing in Victoria, British Columbia, and hadn’t yet heard the news. Like Millar, Queen Elizabeth was the only Monarch he’d ever known.
“Oh, absolutely. Yeah, I’m 61 so, you know, and I think, you know, obviously probably 85 percent of Britons were born during her reign, and stuff like that. It’s really momentous. It’s a very sad day for Britain and people around the world, because she is highly admired and beloved by millions.”
We asked Castell to explain what he sees as the value the Monarchy brings to the UK.
“It’s just such a familiar stability to the country, that we’ve got the monarchy as something that is permanent and always there, where political parties may come and go. So, we’ve always had that permanence and solidity. It really is a founding rock for Britain that is unusual around the world.”
Rita Marston works for the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce. Unlike the others, when she was born, Elizabeth’s father, George VI, was King. But she remembers very well when Elizabeth was coronated. Rita was just 13.
“I am very sad to hear the news. So much so that it was a, it was a shock. And yet, with her age and her health, it was expected. But still it did hit me hard. I felt like I wanted to cry. It’s like losing a member of my own family. In England, your Monarch is Monarch for life. And so, for my, virtually my whole life, she has been my Queen. And you, never having met her, but to have this close connection, this bond. And so yes, it hit very hard.”
One thing became clear during these interviews, and we think Mike Millar summed it up pretty well. In his case, they can take the man out of England, but they can’t take England out of the man.
“At home, I mean, I’ve got a British flag I don’t fly very often, but today it will go up in half mast. I do have a picture of the queen in my room. A lot of people, you see with a picture of the Queen. I do have my picture of the Queen. I’m still very British right down to the end. I mean, I’ve lived here since 1990, but I’m still very British.”