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Residents of Haverhill have joined the rest of the nation in mourning the death of the Queen Mother.

A Book of Condolence has been provided at Haverhill Library this week, after a number of requests for one.

Library manager Madeline Tuck said they had kept a similar book when Princess Diana died and last year after September 11.

Mrs Tuck said: “We are more than happy to have it here so that people can come in and write down their thoughts.”

The Rev Edmund Belts. Rector of St Mary’s Church in Haverhill, said special prayers had been said at the Sunday morning service for the Queen Mother.

He said: “I think her long life is something to celebrate. It was remarkable that she lived so long and over a number of generations.”

Some flowers have been left outside the church and Mr Belts said more prayers would be said in her memory next Sunday. No special services were planned for Tuesday, when it was felt many people would want to watch the funeral service on television.

The Queen Mother had never been to Haverhill, but paid a visit to the Sue Ryder Home at Cavendish more than 20 years ago.

She had visited Mid-Anglia overall about 50 times in a period spanning almost 80 years.

The Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire. James Crowden, said: “She was always very kind in expressing a great affection for Cambridgeshire.

“I am devastated by the news of her death. She was a most marvelous lady and I cherish the many happy memories of her visits to the city.”

Born the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon on August 4, 1900, the Queen Mother was to have a profound effect on the British monarchy.

The longest-lived Queen Consort in history was a well-loved member of the Royal Family and a majestic great-grandmother to the nation.

The Queen Mother, the great lady who smiled her way into the nation’s heart during the Blitz, was the country’s last major figure of the Second World War.

During the conflict she was tireless in her efforts to boost morale around the nation and undertook endless tours surveying the destruction inflicted on the country.

Her most memorable moment of note during the war was her response to the suggestion that both she and her daughters should be evacuated to the safety of Anierica or Canada.

To this she simply said: “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King and the King will never leave.”

After the war she developed a love of horse-racing and was to become one of the best-loved and most-successful characters on the National Hunt racing circuit.
In her long and illustrious life she never had to drive a car, pull her bedroom curtains. prepare a meal or travel anywhere without maids and footmen. But somehow she could reach ordinary people.

This tiny, charismatic woman — she was only 5ft 2ins tall — was always essentially herself, an aristocrat with a hint of Pearly Queen behind the royal plumage.

Tomorrow the Queen Mother’s coffin, which has been lying in the Queens chapel at St James’ Palace since Tuesday, will be moved to Westminster Hall where her body will lie in state until the funeral takes place on Tuesday.