Mum was very proud to have spent the majority of her life living here in Battle, which has so much significance for the history of England. She was equally proud of originally being born and brought up near Stratford-upon-Avon in William Shakespeare country.
So it is very fitting that today is not only St George’s Day but also the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.
Therefore I would like to dedicate one of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets to Mum and I hope that it will forever remind you of her as well.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.