Iain Duncan Smith pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother
April 2002
by Iain Duncan Smith MP

The Conservative leader's speech at the recall of Parliament (3.4.02)

In supporting the Humble Address, all Opposition Members concur entirely with the tribute that the Prime Minister paid to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. As he said, our thoughts and prayers are with her Majesty the Queen and the royal family, particularly because in this, her golden jubilee year, Her Majesty has had to suffer the death of her sister and now her mother within a matter of weeks.

Fifty years ago, Sir Winston Churchill stood in the Prime Minister's place as the House gathered to mourn the death of the King. He said of the King during the last war: "the fate and fortunes of the whole nation and of his realms were centred not only in his office but in his soul, that was the ordeal which he could not have endured without the strong, loving support of his devoted and untiring wife and Consort."

Sir Winston Churchill was more aware than anyone of the service that the Queen Mother gave our nation. All of us owe an enormous debt of gratitude to the woman who played such a vital part in defending our liberty and democracy.

We often tend to think of great figures in our history as being victorious generals, influential thinkers or inspiring national leaders. The Queen Mother's great contribution to our nation was different and special. She did not lead military campaigns, inspire through speeches or transform the nation directly, but by standing resolute in the face of danger beside her husband the King and her country, and by providing a loving family in which her children and grandchildren could grow up, she made a contribution that was no less enduring. In this, the Queen Mother shared the attitude of millions of British soldiers, public servants and private citizens whose service to future generations is given through individual lives of courage, love and devotion. When her country needed it most, she gave her inner strength and her wonderful personality. In doing so, she embodied what is good and noble about the people of our country.

As the Prince of Wales said in his moving tribute to his grandmother: "She understood the British character and her heart belonged to this ancient land and its equally indomitable and humorous inhabitants."

Queen Elizabeth's life embraced a century of tumultuous change, as the Prime Minister said. When she was born, the motor car was still an uncommon sight on our streets and, by the time she died, people thought nothing of flying to the other side of the world. It was a century of enormous technological advance, from communications to medicine, a century that produced penicillin and the internet, but also two world wars and the atomic bomb. It was a century in which democracy flourished, but it was also regularly threatened by regimes of monstrous depravity, such as those of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia.

During that century, the Queen Mother personally also had to suffer the early loss of a much-loved brother and of a husband worn down, perhaps, by responsibilities that were unexpected. From the Queen Mother we learn that character and inner strength can be a formidable anchor during times of change and upheaval. She felt no need to trim to the prevailing winds of fad and fashion; instead she stayed true to herself. Yet she never seemed anachronistic or, less still, out of touch, our memory of her has a timeless quality.

The Queen Mother's strength was that she brought to her public duties the same enjoyment with which she practised her private enthusiasms. She rejoiced in the company of young people. She was devoted to her regiments, passionate about her sporting interests, from fishing to racing, and brought energy to all the causes with which she was associated.

I first heard of the death of the Queen Mother when I was fishing on a Scottish loch on Saturday. It struck me at the time that she might well have approved of such a way of spending a Saturday afternoon. My first reaction was sadness, but as I thought more it turned to gratitude, for the Queen Mother's life was long, well lived and for the benefit of many. She was, frankly, the best of us.

Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family should know that all of us in the House and in the country share their sadness, but that our sadness is balanced with pride. We are proud to have shared in the life of this deeply loved and remarkable lady.