Lloyd’s mark the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II & accession of HM King Charles III

• Event held in Lloyd’s Underwriting Room on Thursday 15th September, with the Lloyd’s market in attendance
• The historic Lutine bell rung once to mark the death of The Queen and twice to mark the accession of The King

Lloyd’s, the world’s leading marketplace for commercial, corporate and specialty risk solutions, today hosted a ceremony in the Underwriting Room of its building at One Lime Street to remember Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and to mark the accession of His Majesty King Charles III.

The ceremony began with a single ring of the Lutine Bell to mark the death of HM Queen Elizabeth, and ended with two rings to acclaim the new King. Attendees included members of the Lloyd’s market and employees of the Corporation of Lloyd’s and provided an opportunity to come together to remember Her Majesty, and express support for the new King.

The state funeral of Her Majesty will be held on Monday 19 September 2022. This has been declared a day of National Mourning and will be a bank holiday in the UK.

The Lloyd’s building and Underwriting Room will be closed on this day, as will Lloyd’s global offices. With the exception of 19 September, the Lloyd’s building and Underwriting Room will remain open.

The Union Jack at Lloyd’s will fly at half-mast throughout the duration of the mourning period, until after the funeral. A book of condolence has been placed in the Underwriting Room and this will be displayed within the building in due course.

The poem read by Sheila Cameron

For The Hardest Days, by Clint Smith

Some evenings, after days when the world feels

like it has poured out all its despair onto me,

when I am awash with burdens that rests atop

my body like a burlap of jostling shadows,

I find a place to watch the sun set. I dig

my feet into a soil that has rebirthed itself

a millions times over. I listen to the sound

of leaves as they decide whether or not

it is time to descend from their branches.

It is hard to describe the comfort one feels

in sittings with something you trust will always be

there, something you can count on to remain

familiar when all else seems awry. How remarkable

it is to know that so many have watched the same

sun set before you. How the wind can carry

pollen and drop it somewhere it has never been.

How the leaves have always become the soil

that then become the leaves again. How maybe

we are not so different than the leaves.

How maybe we are also always being reborn

to be something more then we once were.

How maybe that’s what waking up each morning is.

A reminder that we are born

of the same atoms as every plant and bird

and mountain and ocean around us.