Back home to a nation in mourning

Barbara and I arrived back in Falmouth last night after two weeks in Tanzania. We heard of the Queen's death during our first week and everyone we met, from many nations, expressed their admiration for her ceaseless devotion to duty over 70 years (posting of September 9th). Very few people who are grieving will have actually met the Queen, but I am pleased that I had the opportunity of doing so in 1980 when she and Prince Philip visited Camborne School of Mines.

We arrived back in time for the magnificent spectacle of today’s state funeral, which brings closure and the end of an era. Queen Elizabeth II has been an ever present part of life in the UK and in many parts of the world for almost three quarters of a century, and we can now remember her in our own ways and proceed with the next chapter under the rule of King Charles III.