College statement on death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

Churchill College wishes to express its sorrow on the news of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Our founder, Sir Winston Churchill, was Prime Minister at the time of the death of the late Queen’s father on the night of 5-6 February 1952. In his subsequent broadcast to the nation, in words that seem very poignant today, he described how the news ‘struck a deep and solemn note in our lives which, as it resounded far and wide, stilled the clatter and traffic of twentieth-century life in many lands and made countless millions of human beings pause and look around them. A new sense of values took, for the time being, possession of human minds and mortal existence presented itself to so many at the same moment in its serenity and in its sorrow, in its splendour and in its pain, in its fortitude and in its suffering.’

He ended by turning to the future and to the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth II: ‘Famous have been the reigns of our Queens. Some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their sceptres’.

He was her first Prime Minister, as we now know the first of 15. This college has hosted many of them, and holds the archives of several, but it is has only ever known one Queen. Her Majesty created the College by putting her seal to our Charter in 1960. After the first Master, all subsequent Masters have been appointed by the Crown. The Queen’s consort, Prince Philip, was the College’s Visitor from its founding until his death.