Written by Tiane Davis // Photo provided by Hunter Corker
Students participating in the Harding University in England (HUE) program had the chance to witness London earlier this month during one of its most significant events in recent history.
Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday, Sept. 8, just two days before HUE students left England. After hearing the news, several groups of students rushed to the Underground — the London railway system — to make their way to Buckingham Palace and honor the fallen queen.
Sophomore Gabe Jones said it felt like a normal Thursday afternoon in London. After expecting either flooded streets because of uncertainty or completely empty streets for mourning, he said he saw none of that — everything seemed normal. When Jones arrived at the palace, however, he said it no longer felt like an ordinary day.
“There were dozens of news reporters,” Jones said. “I couldn’t even see the sidewalk because of the flood of people, and it all felt very chaotic. As I glanced at the palace through the crowd, I could see the flag of England waving at the top. That’s when I heard someone next to me say, ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen the flag at half mast.’”
Over 4 miles away from the palace, the news hit just as hard. Sophomore Scarlett Davis said she was in Notting Hill, a district on the west side of London, when she got a text from her mom saying the queen had died.
“I just stood there and looked up from my phone at what was going on around me,” Davis said. “Everyone on the streets seemed to be walking slowly, looking at their phones in bewilderment or standing in the streets in awe.”
As Davis headed toward the Underground to start making her way to the palace, she said she heard people on phone calls, saying things like, “The queen just died!” or “I can’t believe she’s dead,” or “Well I don’t know what we’ll do now.”
Davis said when she arrived at the palace, the mood was somber and respectful. She said it was different than she would have expected back home.
“In the states, people in a group that large would have been talking so much and making so much noise, especially for an event like this, but the British didn’t,” Davis said. “They just quietly stood around looking at the palace, except for the spontaneous outbreak of claps or singing every once in a while.”
The students who chose to stay in their flats and avoid the crowds said the atmosphere in the city was noticeably different, even miles away from the palace. Sophomore Abbey Williams said the change was almost instant.
“I was watching the news very closely, and as soon as I found out the queen died, I looked outside my window,” Williams said. “The locals that are usually laughing and talking outside got very quiet. I heard gasps and immediate talk about what was going to happen next. It was really cool to see a change in behavior.”
HUE director Lauren Knight heard the news merely hours after swearing an oath to the queen as a newly accepted British citizen. With her citizenship ceremony being at 4:15 p.m. that day, she was one of the last in the country to be sworn in under Elizabeth.
“We’ve never known life without her,” Knight said. “So for me, it felt like it was kind of weird in that as I’m coming in, she’s leaving, so it was like a passing of the baton in a really silly way — like for my entire life up to that point, she had been the queen, and now as I was coming into citizenship, it would kind of be like a new era.”
Knight said her view of the royal family, specifically the queen, is a little different than it was when she lived in the United States.
“When you look at her as an American, she’s more of a celebrity, and for British people, as I am one now, we look at the royal family more as military,” Knight said. “We respect them for their lives of service and duty, so it’s very sad. She was really admirable.”
