Sunday, February 6 marked both the 70th anniversary of the passing of King George VI but, of course, also the accession, at the age of 24, of our Queen Elizabeth II, now the second longest reigning monarch in modern times. In fact, most of the country will have known no other and so, when the time eventually comes when she is succeeded by her son, the title King Charles III is going to take a little getting used to. Much the same must have applied at the beginning of the 20th century when, in 1901 the country again had a king - Edward VII - after Queen Victoria had reigned for just under 64 years, and, once again, most people knowing no other monarch.
However, now is not yet the time to look forward, but to celebrate the past 70 years - an era which would not have been easy for any head of state.
A changing world saw the demise of the empire as it changed into the commonwealth of independent nations that we have today, increased social mobility and concurrent changes in attitudes and thinking, and certainly to the degree of deference shown to royalty, often led by some of the more scurrilous papers with their long-lensed photographers and scandals and tittle-tattle no longer hushed up by editors.
But she has survived all this to retain the respect of the vast majority of the country. There can be few whose hearts did not go out to her at the sight of her sitting, small and alone at the funeral of Prince Philip, obeying, to the letter, the Covid rules at that time.
Rye has rightly acknowledged this and on that Sunday a combination of the Ryebellion drummers and the stentorian voice of our town crier Paul Goring outside the town hall, put paid to ideas of a lie-in that any residents of the citadel might have had when, starting at 10:45am a tattoo rolled out from the drummers heralding the cry from Paul and in the presence of the mayor, deputy mayor and a good crowd of both locals and visitors.
Later the drummers and mayoral party processed down the high street, just to make sure that no one in the town centre remained asleep.
This was the first event to mark the Queen's jubilee year and further celebrations are being planned by the mayor and town council for later in the year. Rye News will carry details as soon as we have them together with news of events organised by any other groups in the town.
