When she received her Oscar as the best actress for her role in “The Queen”, Dame Helen Mirren held the statuette aloft and proclaimed: “I thank her because if it wasn’t for her I most certainly would not be here. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Queen!”
“For 50 years and more, Elizabeth Windsor has maintained her dignity, her sense of duty and her hairstyle. She’s had her feet planted firmly on the ground, her hat on her head, her handbag on her arm and she has weathered many, many storms,” she continued.
Dame Helen’s singular achievement is, as we have said before , that she has captured, and captured superbly, that heroic sense of duty that is central to the character of our Queen. We recalled this when we saw Joy Chambers, the distinguished author, being interviewed on 26 February 2007 on Channel 9 by Kerri-Anne Kennerley. This was about her superb new book, “Cry Freedom”, a meticulously researched and exciting novel set against those dark days in the Second World War when we were under threat of invasion. Being the day of the Oscars, and knowing of Ms Chambers’ friendship with Dame Helen, Ms Kennerley threw in a question or two about the film. We were delighted when Ms Chambers also referred to the way Dame Helen had captured the very essence of The Queen’s character.
In the meantime, our call that The Queen’s 55 years of service be recognized has been relayed not only in the media, and on the ABC news online site, it seems to have gone around the world. It was taken up on a wonderful London based site, The Royalist where it was published under the heading: “George VI: The King Who ‘Did His Duty’”
It was preceded by this introduction: “Some royal anniversaries are almost imprinted on the mind: the present Queen’s Coronation and the death of Diana being just two of many which are widely honoured. This week, however, ‘Lilibet’ quietly marked a poignant anniversary, that of her accession to the throne on the death of her father. Here, Professor David Flint pays tribute to King George VI and hails his homeland of Australia’s enduring ties to the monarchy”.
The ACM column has also received an award on a splendid Canadian site, The Monarchist, as number one on their list of “Loyal Subjects of the Day”, and in the United States, on the informative Theodore’s Royalty and Monarchy site.
There is an increasing recognition around the world of The Queen’s life-long devotion to duty and a realisation that constitutional monarchy provides a form of government which in terms of stability, democratic government under the rule of law and protection against the abuse of power, is unrivalled in the world.