To the very last day, Her Majesty was intent on doing her duty

When the Queen went to Balmoral for the start of her traditional summer break, Palace insiders speculated she would never return.

Queen Elizabeth greets newly elected leader of the Conservative party Liz Truss as she arrives at Balmoral Castle to be invited to become Prime Minister and form a new government on September 6.

When the Queen travelled to Balmoral at the end of July for the start of her traditional Scottish summer break, at least one former Palace insider speculated that she would never return.

“She loves Balmoral,” they said. “She is not very well. Why would she want to come back if it is a place she loves?”

As the weeks progressed, that came to look increasingly plausible. Although Buckingham Palace was at pains not to provide a running commentary on the Queen’s health, it became clear from her frequent absences that all was not well.

On July 28 the Queen was unable to attend the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Instead she was represented by Prince Charles, who read out a message that his mother had earlier placed in the Games baton.

Just over a week later, her traditional welcome to Balmoral Castle — after an initial spell at Craigowan Lodge, which had been specially modified for her — was held in private inside the castle grounds.

Normally she would be greeted by crowds of wellwishers outside the gates of her Scottish retreat, where she would inspect a guard of honour from Balaklava Company, 5th Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Scotland, as TV cameras, reporters and photographers record the scene. A source said at the time: “This is a change in line with events being adapted for Her Majesty’s comfort.”

It was becoming apparent that the Queen’s frailty meant she would attend fewer and fewer events in public. That was underlined at the beginning of September when the Queen missed the Braemar Gathering. The Highland Games event is normally an absolute fixture in the Queen’s summer diary, and she had only missed it on a handful of occasions.

Once again, it was said the decision to pull out was taken “for the Queen’s comfort” as a result of her continuing “episodic mobility problems”.

Queen Elizabeth with Boris Johnson in 2019.

However, for all her health issues, it seemed that even at the age of 96 she was still driven by a strong sense of duty.

Ever since Boris Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party, it had been known that he would step down as prime minister on September 6. The Queen was determined that she would be available to perform her constitutional duty, and accordingly at the beginning of August her officials let it be known that it was “business as usual": the Queen would come down to London in order to accept Johnson’s resignation and appoint the new prime minister.

She was making it quite clear that she wanted to carry on working for as long as she was physically able.

In the end, that was not to be. Less than a week before the prime ministerial handover, the Palace said that the Queen would not be travelling down from Scotland after all, but would instead hold her audiences with the outgoing and incoming Tory leaders at Balmoral.

It would be the first time that a prime minister had been appointed at Balmoral since the Marquess of Salisbury in 1885. As the former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt noted, it was “yet another reminder of her advanced age and increasing frailty”. He added: “Despite this, the Queen remains determined to carry out her core duties.

“Appointing a new prime minister is not something that can easily be passed to Prince Charles, a king-in-waiting.”

True to her word, on Tuesday the Queen “saw off her 14th prime minister and welcomed her 15th”, as Johnson told the Commons.. He said of his audience with the Queen: “She was as radiant and as knowledgeable and as fascinated by politics as ever I can remember. And as wise in her advice as anyone I know, if not wiser.”

Making her first public appearance in 47 days to appoint Liz Truss as her 15th prime minister, she was said to have been in good humour, and had commented on the dark skies overhead. Wearing a grey cardigan, and a pleated skirt in Balmoral tartan, she looked cheerful as she was photographed welcoming Truss. She held her walking stick as she leant forward to shake hands.

But for all the positive imagery that emerged from the occasion, meeting her two prime ministers — as well as conferring an honour on her outgoing communications secretary, Donal McCabe, and reading her red boxes — took its toll on the Queen.

The following day, the Queen was told by her doctors to rest. That meant missing the Privy Council meeting that had been scheduled for Wednesday evening, during which the new prime minister would have taken her oath as First Lord of the Treasury and Cabinet ministers would have been sworn into their roles and made privy counsellors, if not already appointed as one in the past.

On Thursday she took a turn for the worse. The first public sign that something was amiss came shortly before 12.30pm when Nadhim Zahawi, the Cabinet Office minister, entered the House of Commons and whispered to Truss. Notes were passed to the Speaker and the Labour front bench.

A series of urgent phone calls had been made from Balmoral to various members of the royal family throughout the morning. Charles and Camilla, who had both been staying at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, immediately decided to cancel their engagements and head straight to the Queen’s side.

The helicopter that had been due to take Camilla to visit a cancer support centre in Airdrie was used to bring the couple to Balmoral instead. They arrived in the morning, in time to see the Queen as her life was drawing to a close.

The Princess Royal was already there, having stayed overnight after carrying out engagements in the area

At about 12.30pm the Palace issued a statement saying the Queen was under medical supervision at Balmoral, with royal doctors admitting they were concerned for her health.

The rest of the family was also rushing to Balmoral. An aircraft had been arranged to take the Queen’s other children — the Earl of Wessex, accompanied by the countess, and the Duke of York — up to Aberdeen. They were joined by Prince William. His wife remained with their children, who started at their new school this week.

Buckingham Palace has not confirmed the time, or cause, of the Queen’s death. But it is thought that by the time the group arrived at Balmoral at 5.06pm, in a car driven by William, it was too late.

Finally, at 6.30pm, the Palace issued a statement saying the Queen had died peacefully during the afternoon.

The Duke of Sussex, who was visiting the UK and had been due to carry out an engagement that evening, also flew up to Balmoral. He arrived shortly before 8pm, more than an hour after his grandmother’s death had been announced.

By the time he got there, his and Meghan’s Archewell website homepage had been replaced with a blacked-out page with the words: “In loving memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022.”

The Times