Late Queen’s common sense will be used to guide permanent memorial in her honour

The late Queen’s “relentless common sense” will shape plans for the permanent memorial and legacy programme in her honour, the former royal aide leading the project has said.

Lord Janvrin, who is chair of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, said Elizabeth II’s practical views will be in the back of his mind as he embarks on the task of creating a lasting tribute to the nation’s longest reigning monarch.

Key figures from across British public life have been appointed to join Lord Janvrin on the committee, including Baroness Amos, and anti-bullying campaigner Alex Holmes – deputy chief executive of The Diana Award.

The Diana Award charity was set up to promote the legacy of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Holmes, who at 35 is the youngest member of the committee, was made a Queen’s Young Leader in 2017 and presented with his award by the late Queen for setting up his Anti-Bullying Ambassadors peer to peer support programme.

He is also a director at BBC Children in Need.

Ex-leader of the House of Lords Lady Amos, who was made a Labour life peer in 1997, is the former UN under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

She was also the first black woman to be appointed to the Cabinet, and later the first black person to be appointed to the prestigious Order of the Garter.

The other committee members announced by the Cabinet Office are: historian, broadcaster and Landmark Trust director Dr Anna Keay; former Nationwide Building Society boss Joe Garner; curator and former National Portrait Gallery director Sandy Nairne; the Queen Mother’s official biographer Sir William Shawcross; and business executive Dame Amelia Fawcett, chair of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and former chair of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation.

Lord Janvrin described the seven newly appointed committee members, who will gather for their first meeting at Buckingham Palace on Monday, as “a very talented group of people with a wide range of expertise, experience and contacts to manage this important national project”.

The independent body has been tasked with considering and recommending proposals to the King and the Prime Minister over the next two years, and drawing inspiration from the late Queen’s life of public service and the causes she supported.

The plans will be unveiled to coincide with what would have been the Queen’s 100th birthday year in 2026, and will consist of both a permanent memorial and a legacy programme.

Lord Janvrin told the PA news agency the King was taking a “very close interest” in how his mother will be honoured, and that other members of the royal family will also be consulted on their opinions.

The peer – a trusted figure who worked at Buckingham Palace from 1987 to 2007 including as Elizabeth II’s press secretary and later as her top aide, her private secretary – described how he would be taking inspiration from the late Queen’s practical approach.

Lord Janvrin said: “My experience of working closely with the late Queen was that she was someone who applied a very sort of practical view to everything she did and the issues before her.

“Someone once said that with her, you got relentless common sense. And that was certainly my memory of it.

“I think as we as we look at options and ways in which we take decisions in the coming months, I shall have that sense of a practical approach and a common sense approach to what we’re trying to achieve.”

He added: “Her practical views – I will have those words in the back of my mind as we go forward.”

Describing the importance of establishing a national memorial in Elizabeth II’s honour, Lord Janvrin said: “The Queen was our longest reigning monarch.

“She was there during a period of huge social economic change.

“I think it would represent the feelings that were so evident at the time of her funeral if we had a significant national memorial to her memory both in terms of the monument and a legacy programme.

“I think there was a real sense in those days after her death of just how important she had been, and the contribution that she made to the life of the nation.”

The late Queen died peacefully at Balmoral on September 8 2022 in her Platinum Jubilee year, having served as monarch for 70 years.

Her lifetime of service was hailed across the globe in the aftermath.

Public funds will be used to pay for the memorial and legacy programme, but Lord Janvrin insisted the committee was very conscious of the current economic climate and cost-of-living crisis, and the importance of “good use” of taxpayers’ money.

The Government said it will support the proposals, but also consider other funding options as the project develops.

Lord Janvrin said: “The committee will be very alive to the current economic situation, and very aware that, in moving forward with this project, we need to take that into account.

“That said, I think there is widespread support for some kind of memorial and I think it’s our duty to try and match that expectation by being very clear about good use of public money.”

The public will also be invited to have its say on the plans, but most likely through feedback, rather than a vote.

In 2018, a public poll saw Boaty McBoatface emerge as the winning choice for the naming of a polar research ship, but it was vetoed and named RRS Sir David Attenborough instead.

Lord Janvrin said the plan was to incorporate both tradition and modernity.

“I think that the Queen herself, who I worked with for 20 years, always thought it was not the place for her to be at the sort of cutting edge of fashion,” he said.

“But we need to have produced some kind of memorial that will engage people in the future.

“Somehow we’ve got to mix tradition with modernity. And we have in both the structure, the monument, and the legacy – quite a canvas to try to engage younger people and the whole nation.”

But the committee is also well aware of the pitfalls of previous royal tributes.

The controversial Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park was plagued by problems such as spiralling costs, flooding, faulty pumps and injuries to visitors who slipped while paddling in the water.

Lord Janvrin said: “We can learn from previous experience and, indeed, we are preparing to look closely…I think there’s quite a lot of experience to draw.”

He insisted that all options were open and nothing has been ruled out.

“We really do have a blank sheet and no one has at any stage said this is ruled out,” he said.

One of the committee’s first duties will be to engage and consult with experts in relevant fields in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure expertise is shared from across the UK.

Further appointments will also be made to the committee in due course to provide particular expertise and advice.

Lord Janvrin was chairman of the Royal Foundation when it served as the charitable platform for the-then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, carrying out the role from for 2010 to 2016.

He was ennobled in 2007 and sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords.

“It’s a huge honour and I’m very excited by the whole prospect. I think it’s a great project,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said: “For 70 years Queen Elizabeth II was our greatest public servant and it is fitting that we develop a lasting memorial to her legacy.

“These new committee members bring a range of unique expertise and experience to this important project.”

William and Harry unveiled a bronze statue of their late mother Diana by Ian Rank-Broadley in 2021 on what would have been her 60th birthday, but some critics branded the figure “kitsch” and said it did not capture the princess’s “magic”.

The late Queen unveiled a statue of her father George VI on The Mall in 1955, while a statue of the Queen Mother was erected nearby in 2009, with Charles as the then-Prince of Wales helping to select the final design after artists across the world were invited to submit ideas.

The Queen Mother’s statue cost £2 million and was funded by a £5 coin produced by the Royal Mint to celebrate Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday.

After the death of George VI in 1952, funding was raised to award grants to community organisations working to improve the wellbeing of young and elderly people, including the creation of day centres and clubs, and following George V’s death in 1936, a network of parks and playing fields was created.