Submitted by Meri Gibson
Just as we were getting ready to go to print the very sad news came through of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Many of our member teams countries belong to both the realms and the Commonwealth, the loss of her Majesty will be keenly felt in many of these countries. Of our 36 member countries, ten of these belong to the Commonwealth. Those countries are Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, The Bahamas, and United Kingdom.
I cannot help but remember the poignancy that I witnessed in Spain when the Senior B open crew from Great Britain won a gold medal. I am sure that they never for one moment would have imagined when they were singing their national anthem, “God Save the Queen” that it would be the last time that they would hear or indeed participate in singing that for Her Majesty and themselves.
Queen Elizabeth 11 has been a guiding light for so very many of our paddlers and there will be fond memories from those IBCPC members who participated in the Queens Jubilee paddle on the Thames River in 2012.
Below are some photos of that Great Britain team in Spain.
May the Queen rest in eternal peace and love and, as King Charles lll said in his tribute to his “darling mama”, that on her final journey “she be carried by Angels”.
RIP Queen Elizabeth ll.
