Sir David Attenborough has given a moving tribute to Queen Elizabeth II following the sad news of her death yesterday.
The monarch died “peacefully” at Balmoral on Thursday afternoon, leaving a nation in mourning following her 70-year long reign. Speaking to ITV News, 96-year-old naturalist Sir David said that he will remember Her Majesty by her ‘most precious’ laugh.
Born just weeks apart in 1926, Sir David knew the Queen through his work promoting conservation and the natural world in a friendship spanning decades. Following news of the monarch’s passing, Sir David recalled fond memories of working alongside her on documentaries, The Mirror reports .
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Praising the sovereign’s “incomparable professionalism”, the broadcaster said that over the years he had watched the Queen become “more and more skilled at maintaining a position, maintaining a way of behaving and speaking, and of mastering a brief and doing a job with conviction”. He also said that the monarch had a “mastery” of putting the hundreds of thousands of people she met during her long reign at ease and engaging with them.
“She was an expert at getting people to relax,” he said. “When you met her you were well aware that you were in the presence of someone who was extremely important to our society and yet she made it seem that you were meeting another human being with exactly the same conditions that all human beings have.”
Speaking about her sense of humour, Sir David went on to say that the Queen laughed “in a genuine way” when she found something amusing, adding: “she wasn’t putting it on and that made it very easy”. A clip of the pair laughing over the placement of a sundial in the Buckingham Palace gardens from an ITV News documentary has gone viral in the hours since Her Majesty’s passing.
The Queen and Sir David formed a unique friendship over the course of their long lives. He told the broadcaster their bond was something which left him “delighted” but also knowing “it was a great privilege”.
Sir David was just one of the countless tributes that have poured in for the Queen within the last 24 hours, with her son King Charles leading the messages as he said that losing his “beloved mother” was “a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family.” Numerous world leaders, celebrities and members of the public have given their own tributes, with flowers being laid at the gates of Buckingham Palace as well as across the country including in Newcastle .
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