Former Chief Minister Hon. Derek Taylor has described the late Monarchy Queen Elizabeth II as down to earth, arising from his lengthy interaction with her during his bestowing of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Taylor made the assessment of Her Majesty during an interview with Newsline TCI late Thursday.
“She is the longest serving monarch that we know of, and I had the pleasure of meeting her and chatting with her at Buckingham Palace at the beginning of the century, when I received my OBE, and I found her to be real down to earth,” Taylor said.
He jested that those in attendance at his OBE investiture were perplexed as to what he and the Queen could possibly be talking about for such a long time, but stated she had a keen interest in the welfare of the British Overseas Territories, including the Turks and Caicos Islands.
“Folks wanted to find out why we were talking and chatting for such a long time during the investiture. They said, ‘What could you have been talking about?’ She was enquiring about Turks and Caicos,” Taylor explained.
The former TCI Chief Minister told NewslineTCI that Queen Elizabeth II oversaw many meaningful changes to the in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Countries, saying that she supported those changes.
“During her time on the throne, there was a number of accomplishments, things have changed right up to the election of the new prime minister in the UK (Liz Truss), where the diversity of our Commonwealth and the UK is now at the forefront. She has been one who, from all accounts, supported the changes in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Countries, which include the British Overseas Territories,” Taylor noted.
He revealed that Queen Elizabeth’s passing came as a bit of a surprise to him on the fact that it was reported that she was responding positively to medication.
“Her passing really came about as a surprise. It is sort of a shock because we heard that she was under her medical treatment, but not thought that she would have passed…not now,” he stated, adding that Queen Elizabeth II had overcome many medical challenges, and so, thought she would have overcome this one.
“She has fought a number of battles from a health standpoint. But we did not figure this one would have been the end,” he said.
Responding to the news that the Queen’s son, Charles has ascended to the throne, Taylor welcomes shifting of the guard, joking that alterations would now have to be made to the National Anthem.
“It has been seventy years since we had a king. We used to sing, ‘God save our gracious Queen, now we are going to sing, ‘God save our gracious King’,” the former Chief Minister quipped.