Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Debate between Baroness Bull and Earl of Shrewsbury

Saturday 10th September 2022 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I cannot describe adequately the sadness which I and my family feel at the passing of Her late Majesty the Queen. It is a great privilege and honour to have been given the task of opening the batting, so to speak, for my party in your Lordships’ tributes today, and to be able to give my personal tribute and that of all of us who are involved in the world of horses, in recognition and celebration of this most special and remarkable lady. I ask that your Lordships indulge me while I recount briefly Her Majesty’s passion for the horse and all matters equine. As the Racing Post recently wrote:

“The realm of the horse has lost its best friend.”


I have conducted a lifelong love affair with the horse. Being involved with horses, especially racehorses, was my principal goal, indeed my constant dream, all through my childhood days and beyond. At the age of 17, I went to work as a student for a great teacher of riders, Bertie Hill, a former three times Olympic three-day event rider who had ridden for Her Majesty. Bertie was based at Great Rapscott in Devon, a stone’s throw from the Castle Hill Estate and my noble friend Lord Arran. The Queen had two very special horses with Bertie—Chicago and Great Ovation—and I helped to look after them. That was my first job with horses.

At the forefront, though, was her love of horseracing. She was incredibly knowledgeable as an owner, a breeder and an expert on form and bloodlines. Indeed, her racing adviser, John Warren, is quoted thus:

“If the Queen wasn’t the Queen, she would have made a wonderful trainer. She has such an affinity with her horses and is so perceptive.”


The Queen’s first winner on the flat was Astrakhan at Hurst Park in 1950. The horse was a wedding present from the Aga Khan. Her best colt was undoubtably Aureole, who very nearly won the Derby for her in 1953.

Over the years, she bred and owned so many top-class racehorses. To name a few: Dunfermline, Highclere, Height of Fashion and, more recently, Estimate, Carlton House, Dartmouth and Tactical. A raft of the very best jockeys had the honour of riding for her: Sir Gordon Richards, Lester Piggott, Willie Carson, Ryan Moore, John Reid and many more. Once asked what it was like to ride for Her Majesty, Willie Carson said, “To put on the royal colours makes one feel six inches taller.” That was a rare feat in Willie’s case. Her trainers were the greats of their profession: Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, Major Dick Hern, Peter Cazalet and, these days, John and Thady Gosden, Sir Michael Stoute, Andrew Balding, Michael Bell, William Haggas and more.

National Hunt racing, which is my particular love, is a beneficiary of her horseracing enthusiasm as well, as the Queen has horses with Nicky Henderson and Charlie Longsdon. In the showing world, her favourite show was the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which, like her beloved Royal Ascot, she never missed. The inaugural Royal Windsor Show was held in 1943 to support the war effort financially. Her late Majesty enjoyed many successes there, among her most recent being Wyevale Harry, Balmoral Leia, Walton Highwayman and the Cleveland bay, Hampton Court Ivory.

The Queen was a highly accomplished horsewoman who learned to ride at the age of four on a Shetland pony called Peggy, a birthday present from her grandfather. She continued to ride to the age of 96. She encouraged and helped so many young riders, and indeed produced a daughter and a granddaughter of world-class ability and achievement. Her late Majesty was patron of many of the best agricultural shows and breed societies throughout the Kingdom, including the Welsh Pony and Cob Society and the Royal Welsh Show. She supported many rare equine breeds and bred top-class highland and fell ponies. One of the last photographs I saw of her was choreographed by her stud groom, Terry Pendry. It had Her Majesty standing between a fell and a highland, holding their halter ropes with the most wonderful of magical, radiant smiles spread across her face. She was with her equine friends, to whom she had given so much throughout her life and who had repaid her with total loyalty.

Her late Majesty was the pinnacle of the horse world, and she has her place in equine history as one of the very greatest stalwarts. Thank you, Ma’am, for all you have done. May you rest in peace. God save the King.

[Baroness Bull (CB)]

My Lords, it is a privilege to speak today and to add to the tributes we have heard so far the gratitude and respect of the many arts and cultural organisations across the country that benefited from the support and patronage of Her late Majesty the Queen over the 70 years of her reign. As the noble Earl just reminded us, it is easier to picture the Queen and Prince Philip at the races than at the theatre. It is hard to deny that they would likely have felt much more at home in a hippodrome intended for horses than one designed for performance. To my great surprise, I once found myself discussing choreography with the Duke of Edinburgh, but it was in the context of his having agreed to create a dressage display for a charity event. In characteristically colourful language, he shared his frustration at the complexities of combining movement with music, and I secretly enjoyed his grudging realisation that there might be more to this whole dancing business than he had previously imagined.

And yet, her Majesty’s interest in the arts was real and it stretched back across her life. An Arts Council report from 1946 includes a photograph of the Queen attending a concert in Kings Lynn with her mother and paternal grandmother, suggesting, perhaps, that it was they who helped instil her interest in the arts. As Sovereign, she opened and reopened countless galleries, museums and theatres, cutting ribbons and unveiling plaques. She attended no fewer than 35 Royal Variety Performances. The first, in 1953, included the Tiller Girls and Vera Lynn at the Palladium; the last, in 2012, was at the Royal Albert Hall. She was a patron, over many decades, of arts organisations around the country, including orchestras, brass bands and choirs as well as major institutions such as the National, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House, where I had the great privilege to meet her.

Many of those visits were, of course, formal occasions—occasions on which she was obliged to perform her own role and to dress in costumes and jewellery that rivalled those we wore on the stage. She would come backstage to meet the performers after curtain down and, before the days of mobile phones, we would fervently hope that the official photographers would catch the moment of regal handshake and preserve it for posterity. Perhaps she enjoyed those ceremonial visits—she was far too discreet to let on if not—but they were also part of the life of duty about which we have heard so much over recent days. Yet we also know that, away from the formal schedules, she would occasionally attend performances for sheer pleasure, making unofficial visits to “Billy Elliot” to celebrate her 80th birthday in 2006, and to “War Horse” in 2009. I recall one such private visit to the Royal Ballet, when Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, the company’s long-standing president, decided she liked one ballet so much that she would come back to see it again, and this time, she would bring her sister too.

So, while her love of the arts may have been lower profile than her passion for horses, her support was steadfast and enduring, and the fact that it was passed on through the generations of her family is another of her many legacies. His Majesty the King is an extraordinary supporter of the arts, across music, dance, visual arts and theatre, and has been patron of some 400 organisations. He is particularly committed to opening up opportunities for young people, encouraging them to fulfil their individual creative potential through participating in art.

Over history, monarchs have always inspired artistic creations, and our late Queen was no exception. Her Coronation included a new composition from William Walton, “Orb and Sceptre”, played alongside a march he had composed for her father’s Coronation. It inspired Benjamin Britten’s opera, “Gloriana”, and a new ballet from Sir Frederick Ashton, “Homage to the Queen”, a ballet I had the opportunity to dance some 40 years later. Surely, no sovereign before her inspired such a diverse range of fictional representations in theatre, on stage, on screen and in literature. Perhaps this is as good a measure as any of the changing times over which she reigned. When she ascended the Throne, the Lord Chamberlain still had the power to refuse a licence to a play that might offend, a power that would remain in place until 1968. While one sometimes has occasion to wonder what the 1950s censor might have made of all this, the creative and sometimes whimsical imaginations of writers from Sue Townsend to Peter Morgan and Alan Bennett have given us a different kind of legacy for an exceptional life exceptionally lived. And as other noble Lords have recalled, Her Majesty had her own sense of performance, deployed to memorable effect at the London 2012 Olympics and, more recently, in that unforgettable and heart-warming two-hander with a virtual bear.

Over the coming days, some theatres and arts venues may close their doors, observe moments of silence or dim their lights. They will do so as a mark of gratitude and respect not just for someone whose patronage was so valued, but whose dedication to duty was the living embodiment of that well-known theatrical adage, “the show must go on”. To some, that may sound too trite for such a solemn occasion, but it is a phrase that came to my mind this week as we witnessed Her Majesty summon the strength, even in the fading moments of her life, to carry out her last constitutional duty: a defining moment of both continuity and change that was echoed today as the Council of Accession met and the proclamation of the new King rang out. The curtain falls; the curtain rises. Thank you, Ma’am, and to King Charles III, we wish every success.