The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth said the Queen led a life of dedication, faith, and love, and kindness as she paid tribute to the deceased monarch.
Baroness Patricia Scotland was also optimistic about the future of the Commonwealth under King Charles, saying that it had been left in “robust good health” by the late Queen.
Speaking at her official residence, Marlborough House in central London, following the proclamation of the new King on Saturday, Lady Scotland said: “I think one of the things I know is that we will never see her like again.
“She had a life of dedication, of faith, and actually of love – her kindness is something I think will last for generations.
“She was on our throne for 70 years and in those 70 years I think every day she applied herself for our service, so I think I would like to say a huge thank you to her for her dedication, for her love, and for her cherishing of a Commonwealth family who will forever be grateful to her.
“And I welcome the fact that King Charles III is going to take up that mantle and I know he will work as hard as she, and for that we should also be truly grateful.”
Lady Scotland, who is head of Commonwealth Secretariat – the body responsible for representing the Commonwealth publicly – also praised the Queen for her work bringing together the Commonwealth nations.
She said: “The wonderful thing about the whole of her reign is she built the Commonwealth brick by brick with all the leaders and they made sure that it got stronger and stronger.”
Lady Scotland added the Queen had “left our Commonwealth in robust good health”.
The Secretary-General also spoke of how the Commonwealth would continue to have “challenging conversations” with Charles as the new King.
She said: “I think one of the wonderful things that we have is that Prince Charles also said – he’s confirming it now as King – that his foundation stone was our Commonwealth, we’ve always in the Commonwealth grown and talked about the most difficult issues.
“So I’m sure that challenging conversations are going to continue, and the courage and determination of the Commonwealth countries to stand together for justice, for equality – that’s never going to change.”
