The Senate stood in silence for two minutes on Friday in memory of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch who died last Thursday in Scotland.

British High Commissioner Judith Slater and United Nations Resident Co-ordinator Garry Connolly watched from the guests’ box as Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, Leader of Government Business Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, and Leader of Opposition Business Senator Donna Scott Mottley praised the late monarch.

Senator Tavares-Finson noted that the passing of The Queen, who was also Jamaica’s head of State, was met with great sadness by members on both sides of Upper House, including some who had welcomed her to the Parliament during her visits to the island between 1953 and 2002.

He also extended the Senate’s condolence to the Royal Family, adding that “Much has been said and will be said, but it suffices to say that she has made an indelible mark on the history of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and, indeed, the world”.

Senator Johnson Smith, who is also minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, noted that Elizabeth II had declared, on being crowned Queen at age 21, that her “whole life, whether it be long or short, would be devoted to service”.

“Indeed, Queen Elizabeth lived a life of service to the people of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and the territories of the Commonwealth, marked by grace, poise, and charm. Always exercising the dignity befitting her on whose head rested the crown,” she told the Senate.

She said that The Queen was a continuous source of quiet strength and a stabilising force, “throughout the many epochs as the world evolved during her seven decades on the throne”.

Johnson Smith recalled that on The Queen’s last visit to Jamaica in 2002, she addressed a joint sitting of the Parliament which she described as “the first independent Parliament of the Caribbean.

“She also observed that this Parliament had been one of the significant institutions for the fashioning and strengthening of our democratic society, creating many important laws to protect the rights of citizens and to promote Jamaica’s effective participation in the global economy through international trade,” Johnson Smith added.

Senator Scott Mottley said that the death of The Queen had stunned people across the globe, “because, although she was 96, many felt that she was immortal”.

“Even as they watched her change from a radiant, beautiful 25-year-old to become the matriarch of the Commonwealth and beyond, her life was embedded in her sense of duty. She started out at a very young age, when she actually joined the army as a truck mechanic. That is a most unusual occupation for someone third in line for the throne,” Scott Mottley pointed out.

“She had a particular love for Jamaica and, as the minister said, she visited us on several occasions. But I will never forget her equanimity, her calmness and her demeanour when we had a power cut at King’s House [during her visit in 2002] and she just kept sailing right along. Her wit and her charm were very obvious on that occasion,” she pointed out.

“On this special occasion, when we reflect on the life of Queen Elizabeth, we reflect on a life of dignity, a life of quiet assurance, a life of grace and elegance,” Scott Mottley said.

The two-minute silence observed by the Senate is a ritual carried out since World War I and was initiated by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in commemoration of the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkey, in April 1915. It is often reserved as a special honour for important world leaders.