The monarch immersed herself in Commonwealth matters and relished her role in binding its nations together
Born out of the empire, the Commonwealth, in the words of the Conservative former prime minister John Major and others, has somehow been held together by an invisible glue that was Queen Elizabeth.
Major once said: “The Queen’s relationship with the Commonwealth is intensely personal. You only have to see the Commonwealth heads of government – and particularly the African Commonwealth heads of government – with the Queen to see what they think of her, and of the institution of monarchy itself.”