Exeter Cathedral was packed for a service attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Devon, David Fursden, the King’s representative in the county.
Army Cadets cadets from Teignmouth School, pictured, read the prayers at Exeter Cathedral.
The sermon was given by the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Rev Robert Atwell, who shared his memories of the Queen: ‘The Queen was someone whom everyone felt they knew. She was local to everyone. She was a person of extraordinary stamina, unpretentious and surprisingly frugal. She hated obsequiousness and, in spite of the pomp and circumstance that surrounded her, disliked fuss.
‘Queen Elizabeth had a quiet, unfussy faith which always made room for others. Her trust in Jesus Christ was central to her life, but she wore her faith on her heart, not on her sleeve.’
Bishop Robert recounted one occasion when he was invited to stay at Sandringham for the weekend and the Queen asked him to help her complete a jigsaw puzzle: ‘For the next 35 minutes, the Queen of England and I sat next to each other, chatting about this and that, trying to sort out the sky in the top right-hand corner of what turned out to be a fiendishly difficult jigsaw,’ he said.