We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

At Royal Residences across the UK, countless bouquets of flowers continued to be placed as mourners shared their memories of Elizabeth and her 70-year reign. At Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Balmoral, Sandringham, Hillsborough Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, as well as Green Park in London, Her Majesty’s loyal subjects showed how much they cared for her and gave thanks for her years of service.

A tearful Melanie Knight, 54, made the journey from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, to Buckingham Palace to offer condolences.

“I’m really emotional. We just needed to be here,” Melanie said.

“She’s the one constant that’s always been and it’s really strange.

“I went up into my attic yesterday specifically to find my Brownie pack memorabilia because I remembered I pledged my allegiance to serve the Queen and God. I’ve never ever thought about it until yesterday.”

Andy Bow, 57, from Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, was at Buckingham Palace. The Armed Forces veteran said: “I’m just completely bereft really. I served the Queen while I was in the Army for 14 years. She just means so much to me, she’s everything.

“She’s the mother of our nation I think. I, along with the vast majority of everybody here, am a little bit lost and not sure what’s going to happen. So I just felt I had to come down and pay my respects for the last time.”

The visit to Buckingham Palace was an emotional occasion for sisters Francesca Prescott, 54, and Michela Grigioni, 52, from Sevenoaks, Kent, after their mother Estelle Hyams died, aged 81, last year.

They said she would have been “over the moon” and “proud” to see them there and would have said “That’s my girls”.

At Balmoral, where the Queen died on Thursday, a stream of people crossed a bridge over the River Dee to lay flowers.

Thousands of bouquets have been left at the gates of her favourite Scottish home. One card read: “Ma’am, thank you for your dedication and years of service. There will always be a special place in Heaven.”

Another featured a child’s drawing of the late monarch with “I miss you Queen”.

Tributes laid at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh included a copy of Michael Bond’s book Paddington At The Rainbow’s End.

A note written on it read simply “One last story Ma’am. X” Another well-wisher left a marmalade sandwich inside a zipped plastic bag with a note saying “For later” next to a stuffed Paddington Bear.

Both are nods to the sketch featuring the Queen at the Platinum Jubilee in June.

In Windsor, long queues formed outside the Long Mile as people gathered to pay their respects to the Queen.

Mother Angela Clarke, 72, and daughter Lucy, 50, from Staines, Surrey, were among those leaving flowers.

Angela said: “We were so upset.

“We feel close to her here in Windsor, this was her home.

“When I try to think of the Queen it’s just her big, big smile. She put people at ease. She carried that out to the end.”

Gill Wintle, 74, from Ashford, Kent, said: “I remember the Coronation, the street parties and being dressed up for the fancy dress.

“We had an old, old black-and-white television. It was like a box, with a small screen.

“We were lucky enough to have a television in our street. Everyone came to our house to watch it.”

Louise and Andrew Falconer travelled from Watford to pay their respects.

Mrs Falconer, 63, said: “You realise it has actually happened when you see all this.”

• Did you meet the Queen? Please email us your memories and photos to: [email protected]

Source: Read Full Article