THE late Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will leave us all with different lasting memories.

We had all been given the day off, as a one off Bank Holiday was announced and thousands of hospital appointments were delayed, as were numerous bank transactions.

I’m not at all sure that Her Majesty would actually have wanted all that followed her death, but the nation mourned, some more enthusiastically than others, as the House of Windsor exerted its strong hold over the nation.

Perhaps I should clarify at this point my deep and genuine respect for our late Queen. They simply don’t come any better, and she will undoubtedly be a very hard act to follow. In an age where standards and moral compasses seem to have been jettisoned by so many of our Leaders nationally and world wide on the alter of ego, she personified decency, honour and selflessness.

She also was unafraid to witness as a Christian believer. She had a strong faith in Almighty God and believed therefore not only in a life after death, but a judgement.

It seems that as a nation we have moved away from such attitudes, a move which, in my opinion, has not enhanced the nation or its people.

We need to reconsider and reflect upon that belief structure, which to her eternal credit she upheld to the very end. Her funeral service reflected that, and it was a lasting memory for me of the occasion.

All that said one other memory lingers, and that is of the young Prince George and sister Charlotte. A long held British tradition is that we seldom talk of death. It’s one of those things we tend to hide away, like a dotty aunt or a broken heart.

One of my lasting memories of my own childhood is the death of my paternal grandfather. I was the same age as George, and wasnt considered old enough to attend his funeral, so sat in the darkened front room at home, curtains pulled, and wept, uncontrollably, inconsolably.

Not only did those two young children have to mourn the loss of their grandmother, but they had to do so with the world looking on. Their dignity and courage struck me, if no one else, as quite remarkable.

They did spectacularly well, and may well need those qualities as the Monarchy inevitably changes during their life times.