Farewell to a sovereign
On Monday morning a crowd estimated at between 800 and 1,000, of all ages from babies in push-chairs to elderly on mobility scooters, gathered in Alexandra Park to watch a TV screening of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II beamed live from Westminster Abbey and the surrounding streets. The local event was organised by Hastings Borough Council in partnership with Love Hastings, the Business Improvement District for Hastings, who covered the cost.
CREDIT: Kevin Boorman/HBC
Beneath a blue sky that emptied of clouds for almost precisely the hour’s length of the religious service, the park audience stood or sat in the sun, the majority motionless and outwardly emotionless, as all the pomp, ceremony and musical crescendos of 70 miles away were paraded in front of them in zoom-lens close-up and audio hi-fi.
The mayor James Bacon, leader of the council Paul Barnett and other local dignitaries were among the crowd but kept a low profile. No speeches or other interventions were made. The only moment of active community engagement came when, at the end of the service, the televised choir and brass ensemble struck up a rendering of
God Save The King. Virtually the whole audience stood up in recognition of…well, whatever the new monarch may signify to each of them.
Over the previous week, civic roles were performed in the manner expected of the officers concerned. On Friday 9 September Cllr Bacon sent condolences “on behalf of the people of Hastings” to Buckingham Palace and the Royal Family, and laid a wreath at the war memorial in Alexandra Park to join other floral tributes collected there. Flags at Hastings Town Hall in Queen’s Road and at the borough council offices at Muriel Matters House were lowered to half-mast; they were raised temporarily on Sunday 11 to mark the proclamation of King Charles III’s accession to the throne, which was read out that afternoon by Cllr Bacon to a small gathering at Queen Square; then they were lowered again until after the funeral.
At 8pm on Sunday 18 Septemeber dignitaries including the mayor and deputy mayor Cllr Margi O’Callaghan stood for a National Minute of Silence for Reflection outside the Town Hall.
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