ParkerBrand join with the rest of the United Kingdom in mourning our much respected sovereign. Like our whole nation, we are much saddened to know of her passing and feel a genuine sense of deep loss.

We admired Queen Elizabeth for her sense of duty which she declared at so young an age to millions of listeners. On her twenty-first birthday, 21 April 1947, Princess Elizabeth was with her parents and younger sister on a tour of South Africa. In a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, the Princess dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth. For us, the simple yet monumental message, delivered with grace and peerless sincerity, contained words to live by:

"I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong."

And she certainly did live by them. We understand service to others, but not to that magnitude and certainly not to so many for so long. Our country has seen dramatic changes in the last few years and faced testing times. Queen Elizabeth provided us all with a sense continuity of which there is so little in public life these days. She continuously gave where, in this era, so many are simply keen to take. But, for us here at ParkerBrand we admired most her love of nature and the outdoors because we share the same passion.

It may have been a life of duty and service to our nation and the Commonwealth (whose population is now 2.5 billion people) but it was a life filled with a love of nature. As well all know, she passed away at Balmoral Castle where she enjoyed the wild and the sense of freedom. Given our area of business it won't be a surprise to anyone that we love the outdoors be it gardens, parks or the wilderness.

In this sense, we salute the memory of not only our longest ever reigning monarch, but an admirer of nature in it's simple complexity. Are we not all flowers, growing in our given season, free under the sun? Let us then, never forget her great example of service to others, freely given, and thus inspire those around us, day to day. In a quickly changing world, the example of the past can truly serve our future well it seems.