Last month, we reflected with a mixture of great sadness and huge sense of loss, but also remembered with great joy the inspiration which Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II gave in devoting her life to the service of others. 

She set an example not just to those in public life, but to all of us: how to behave, how to help others, how to bring people together and make people happy. She was the mother of the Nation, the founder of the Commonwealth and the senior stateswoman of the globe. The world shares in our grief.

Sir Winston Churchill, her first of 15 Prime Ministers, heralded her Accession to the throne as launching “a golden age” - “a signal for a brightening salvation of the human scene”. And so it proved in so many areas of human endeavour and achievement by her and her subjects over these past 70 years.

We shall probably all remember where we were when we heard the news of Her Majesty’s death. Although she was 96 this still came as a lightning bolt of shock in the midst of thunderstorms raging across her Kingdom that day.

I was with members of the Environmental Audit Committee, at a half-full reservoir in Cornwall surrounded by trees.

This seemed strangely fitting, giving the commitment Her Majesty showed to the environment. Through her love of nature, she and her devoted husband Prince Philip the late Duke of Edinburgh undoubtedly planted the seed for their family’s enthusiasm in championing nature and leading the crusade to combat climate change, decades before this became fashionable.

Only last November in her message to international leaders and delegates attending COP26 she said: “The time for words has now moved to the time for action”.

But it was her love of trees that will be a lasting physical legacy. I suspect she planted more than anyone else in public life around the globe.

The Platinum Jubilee Queen’s Canopy has seen a million trees planted this year alone in her honour, which will be a lasting reminder of her for decades if not hundreds of years to come.

Her only official visit to the Ludlow constituency was in the year after her Golden Jubilee, when she came by royal train to Telford and visited Much Wenlock with Prince Philip to take in the Wenlock Olympian Games, an early precursor to her role in London 2012.

She then showed that her priorities lay with her people, by having lunch in the Discovery Centre in Craven Arms, rather than the gourmet delights of Ludlow. She went on to do a walkabout in the Market Square in Ludlow, where thousands turned out to welcome the first visit by a reigning monarch in more than 300 years. Most visits by earlier monarchs before that had been at the head of an army.

My sincere condolences to the Royal Family on the loss of their, and our, matriarch and monarch.

I know many constituents will join me in wishing His Majesty King Charles III well as he takes up his duties as our Sovereign. It was heart-warming to see that whilst Parliamentarians paid tribute to his Mother in the Chamber on the day after her death, King Charles walked among the well-wishers outside Buckingham Palace. Her example of engaging with us all is already being carried on by her successor. 

I write before the State Funeral has taken place which I am sure will give us all the opportunity to mourn her passing in fitting style. God rest Her Majesty. God save the King.