Queen Elizabeth national memorial unveiling scheduled to coincide with 100th birthday year
Queen Elizabeth II smiles during a visit to Manchester Cathedral
PA
A national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II will be unveiled in what would have been the monarch’s 100th birthday year, the Government has confirmed.
The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee will consider proposals for both a permanent memorial and a “national legacy programme”.
The programme will recognise Elizabeth’s life of service.
Lord Robin Janvrin, who served as the late Queen’s private secretary from 1999 to 2007, will chair the committee.
Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on September 8 2022.PAHe said: “It is an honour to be asked to chair the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee.
“It will be a unique challenge to try to capture for future generations Her Late Majesty’s extraordinary contribution to our national life throughout her very long reign.”
Buckingham Palace will work closely with the royal household and Government.
King Charles III and the Prime Minister will receive the final recommendations for the final sign-off.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Queen Elizabeth II reigned for 70 years and is the UK's longest-serving monarch in British history.
PAWriting for The Telegraph, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: ““For more than 70 years, she was our greatest public servant, an anchor of stability in an ever-changing and often uncertain world.
“Queen Elizabeth II will forever be an icon of the very best of our values and the British spirit.
“I know that her memorial and programmes created in her honour will champion the example she set and inspire a renewed sense of public service for generations to come.”
He added: “We have a proud history of memorialising our kings, queens and other great figures in our history.
“Statues of Queen Elizabeth’s parents stand proudly on The Mall, Her Late Majesty’s grandfather, George V, overlooks Parliament and Queen Victoria commands the front of Buckingham Palace, just as her husband is magnificently memorialised near Hyde Park.
Oliver Dowden wrote about the memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in The Telegraph
PA“The new Queen Elizabeth Memorial will carry on this tradition.”
Other British landmarks have been erected in memory of senior royals, including the white marble Queen Victoria memorial outside Buckingham Palace.
A national memorial to George V was unveiled in 1947 opposite the Houses of Parliament in Old Palace Yard.
The late Queen unveiled a memorial to her father George VI three years after his death in 1955.
A statue dedicated to the Queen Mother, also called Elizabeth, was erected in 2009.