From the Archive

A constant through our lives: Remembering Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

It’s Black History Month and in this reflection on the life and legacy of the Queen, Mickey Ambrose celebrates Queen Elizabeth II’s role in creating opportunities that saw him achieve success on the football field.

I am thinking about my dear mother Mona Ambrose who arrived on the Windrush in the 1950s from Dominica. Mum adored the Queen. When Her Majesty gave her Christmas Day address at 3pm we had to stand up in our front room in Poplar to show respect. That is how we were brought up. 

We lived in a council flat, all five of us. They were good times and I had a fantastic childhood. This was the London of the 1960s and 1970s, so like all Afro-Caribbean families we faced racism and prejudice. As a young black footballer, at times I had it worse than many, with monkey chants and bananas being thrown from the terraces.

But mum would have none of it and would tell us that we could be and achieve anything, while always looking up to Queen Elizabeth as a shining beacon of hope for the future. Mum always said that the Queen was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Fast forward 55 years and Mona’s son has had a successful career in professional football and has been an Ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards for many years and now also represents the wider family of royal charities. This is why I tell the pupils at the Reform School where I work in Central London, that they can be and do anything. 

There is no excuse for crime, drug-dealing or joining gangs. Sure, it is hard growing-up as a young black person on an inner-city council estate, but it is much easier for their generation to succeed and have a positive impact on the world than it was for my family.

When the passing of our beloved Monarch was announced on 8 September, the pain and grief was palpable.  

Cars honked their horns in   London as a mark of respect, while people from all walks of life walked down the street with tears freely flowing, from mums doing the school run to burly lorry drivers covered in tattoos, off to seek a sandwich on their lunch break.

Queen Elizabeth had a deep and meaningful relationship with people. She was a constant through all of our lives, like a warm glow from a fireside.

She did more to eradicate racism and create an equal society than any other monarch or politician in British history.

When she came to the throne, it was 27 years since the decision was taken for a Commonwealth to be formed from the British Empire – a dominion of equal and independent states. 

However, very little actually happened in regard to how the British public perceived their former colonies, until a young and determined princess became queen and swore an allegiance of servitude to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Over the coming decades Queen Elizabeth, with her companion and confidante, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited every Commonwealth Country of the time.

These visits and the respect that Her Majesty showed every culture, reinforced that sense of  equality, that we, the second and third  generations of immigrants from the Commonwealth, could be and achieve anything.

It has been a hard struggle, but the everyday racism and insults of the 1960s and ‘70s, can now attract a prison sentence as a race hate crime in the United Kingdom. The overt racism of this period is now a shadow of its previous incarnation and we focus on the passive racism, the legacy of the past, and glass ceilings that still exist for the Afro-Caribbean Community in the British Isles.

However, race is no-longer the predominant issue; we have reached a stage in the evolution of thinking in my Country where the easiest way to break down racial barriers is through joint experiences and interests, which create friendships and loyalties across all ethnic lines. This is the true legacy of Queen Elizabeth II.


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