Tag: John Taylor

The tribute made by John Taylor, Baron Kilclooney, in the House of Lords on 10 September 2022.

My Lords, I am delighted to join in these tributes to Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

I am afraid that my recollections will age me. Shortly after the Second World War, I served in a guard of honour for a visit by the then Princess Elizabeth to Armagh in old Ireland. I then recall the death of King George VI and Her Majesty’s immediate return from Kenya to the United Kingdom. I then recall the wonderful Coronation service in Westminster Abbey, when I saw television for the first time in my life, albeit in black and white.

At the beginning of this century, I had lunch with Her Majesty after the Maundy Thursday service in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. As one living near the border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, I am keen to develop respect within the island of Ireland and, especially, to encourage co-operation between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 2011 visit to Dublin has been mentioned. It was very much a healing event in the island of Ireland, but the subject does not end there. I was especially impressed by the way she spoke some words in Irish—perhaps using more words than many members of the IRA can use. Likewise, as has been mentioned, I was impressed by her visiting the cemetery in which there are the bodies of some dead republican terrorists. One year later, I recall Her Majesty’s visit to shake hands with a former leader of the IRA in Northern Ireland, then acting as Deputy First Minister at Stormont. When she met Martin McGuinness, he said, “Your Majesty, how are you?”, to which she replied, “I am still alive.”

I must remind your Lordships that there remains unfinished work on the island of Ireland. There is still some extremism in both communities on that island. On Thursday evening, when the death of Her Majesty was announced, there was a football match on in Dublin. The crowd there celebrated her death and then sang an evil song, “Lizzie’s in a box”. That is the reality of life for some people on the island of Ireland. We must not get carried away. However, in contrast, I am glad to say that the Government of the Republic of Ireland have decided to fly the Irish flag at half-mast on all public buildings, so there has been progress on the island.

We all respect the service of Her Majesty to all parts of the United Kingdom and her strong Christian faith, but we now dedicate our loyalty to King Charles III. We trust that he will serve for many years the people of the United Kingdom—in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland—and of the Commonwealth. God save the King.

The tribute made by John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Holbeach, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

My Lords, I am pleased to follow the noble Lord, Lord Kakkar, because I was with him on that very day, when I also took the Privy Council oath.

I start by saying how much I have enjoyed listening to other noble Lords talk about our late Queen and the way in which she has served the nation. We have heard some admirable speeches, as my noble friend Lord Wakeham said. I echo his admiration for her diligence in knowing what the issues are and being prepared to work to acquire that knowledge. Nobody can doubt that she has been a very hard-working and diligent monarch. She has combined that with constitutional integrity, which has been vital for this nation, the developing world and the Commonwealth of which she has been head.

Noble Lords have mentioned her human qualities. Perhaps that is an important dimension because that was how she was able to relate to many noble Lords here present who have had opportunities to get to know her, to work with her or to accompany her in particular activities.

I do not know whether I should declare an interest, but I want to talk about my family horticultural business. For 37 years, we have been the warrant holders, as bulb growers, to Her Majesty the Queen. Some people may say that is not a particularly proud boast, but I personally take great pleasure from it and it has preceded all this other stuff, of red Benches and the rest of it, and is probably more important in real terms than anything I have been able to do here. Although gardening does not compete with horses or dogs, it comes a very close second, and you have only to go round the royal gardens of royal properties at Balmoral, Windsor and Buckingham Palace to get an idea of how seriously Her Majesty took gardening. It was not just visits to Chelsea and scant things like that.

That has provided me with some common link. Perhaps I may end with a little bit of an anecdote from my political life, because I was a Lord in Waiting, which was for a number of us a great deal of fun and enjoyable, although it involved duties. I see colleagues here who are Baronesses in Waiting; they will know that it is a great honour but also interesting. One of the great things that the monarchy has done in this country is to make working with it interesting, with everybody feeling that it is a worthwhile thing to be doing.

Obviously, when I first went along to see Her Majesty, the bulb connection sprang to mind. It served as a common theme, so we talked about politics, of course, but we also talked about horticulture and the like. There was a famous occasion when we had a visit from a certain important ally. In fact, it was my last royal duty. We were part of the welcoming group at Buckingham Palace. The particular visitor was extraordinarily diligent, so much so that the bandmaster had to reprise the music while he inspected the guard of honour, as he insisted on stopping to speak to about every other person, asking them where they came from, what they did, how long they had been in the service or whatever it happened to be.

Subsequently, this particular distinguished visitor seemed to take an awfully long time moving around in the reception area. Her Majesty said to me, “I think we’re going to have to break this up. He’s getting stuck.” Of course, she was rather mischievous about this, but asked me what I thought we should talk to him about. I said, “Why don’t we talk to him about daffodils?” Of course, this particular President was not used to talking about daffodils. He had never met anybody who knew anything about daffodils, and he certainly did not know anything about them himself. He was much more interested in casinos, New York property development and things like that, if I might say so. Oh! I have revealed who it is. Never mind; the confidentiality of these speeches is well known.

I felt that it was evidence of her humanity that the thing that helped her through the days of hard work that she had to accomplish was the fact that she had a sense of humour, a genuine wit, and she was great fun. All noble Lords here who have had anything to do with Her Majesty will know that to be with her was great fun.

I wish the House comfort in its grief because we are all upset at her death. May the King live long.