COLUMN BY SIOBHAN BAILLIE MP.

I know many, many people across Stroud, the Valleys and Vale were watching the telly or took the trip to London to be there in person on Monday to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth.

It was an occasion full of sadness, celebration and achingly poignant symbolism.

It allowed us all to say goodbye and thank you as we come to terms with this loss.

Who could not be moved as the new King put the Queen's Company Camp Colour of the Grenadier Guards on the coffin and the Lord Chamberlain breaking his Wand of Office. It was the final act of the Elizabethan Age.

But it was also another stunning day of events. Many will remember exactly where they were when they heard The Queen had died and on the day of the funeral. The week that followed her death has unsettled us all but it has also made many of us, myself included, even more proud to be British. 

I take my hat off to the organisers in London and Windsor, the Houses of Parliament teams, Westminster Abbey, the armed forces, the police and the hundreds of security personnel who made it happen with such style and sense of history. Thank you. You did Her Majesty and the country proud.

We all have our own private little tributes too. My daughter Tilly’s middle name is Elizabeth after Her Majesty as she was born around the jubilee celebrations.

I believe telling her about why the name and the woman it commemorates is so special will be a positive for her growing up.  

Sadly, neither of our girls will remember living under Her Majesty.

But we have photos of them in Stroud and in London at this sad time and like many others, we will tell the stories about how the country celebrated a remarkable woman. 

A big thank you to the hundreds of people who joined a march through Stroud to demand an end to sexual violence towards women and girls.

It was another show of strength on this issue.   

Organised by This Ends Now, the protest follows a series of sexual assaults across Gloucestershire.

I was sorry I could not be there but I support this cause.