Hucknall: Lord-Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire pays heartfelt tribute to ‘rare’ Queen Elizabeth II

Sir John, who was the Queen’s official representative in Nottinghamshire said: “She was so trusted and was brilliant at making people feel at ease.

"You would be in awe of meeting this great lady and, when you actually started talking to her, she had a wicked sense of humour.

“She would always have a joke with you but, through the way she would talk and what she would talk about, you would feel like she knew you and you knew her – that’s a rare quality.”

The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire at the age of 96 last Thursday evening, bringing to an end her historic and record-breaking 70-year reign on the throne.

Tributes have flooded in from across the world as the United Kingdom has entered a period of mourning.

The Queen’s funeral will be on Monday, September 19, which has been made a bank holiday in the UK.

King Charles III has now officially become the new monarch and Sir John now represents him in Nottinghamshire.

Sir John, who met the Queen on numerous occasions, described her as a ‘truly remarkable lady’ and revealed where he was when he found out about her death.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “You have those JFK moments, those 9/11 moments – those things you never forget – and this was one of them.

“Purely by chance, I was meeting the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham and we were going to go to dinner together.

“At 6.30pm, I stood outside his door and he got a call from Lambeth Palace with the news and I got a call from the Cabinet Office – he opened the door and we both said we knew.

“The shock hit in because we just didn’t expect it.

“My reaction was deep sadness, my mind was spinning in many directions but it has become clear she meant a huge amount to the people of Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands.

“People respected her, they trusted her – integrity was immense in everything she did and that’s particularly rare these days.

“To have someone of that stature was very special and I think people feel this very personally – no longer having this rock who’s been our Queen for the past 70 years.”

On the accession of King Charles, Sir John said he has been an ‘impeccable’ son and will be a ‘great king’.

He said: “A change of monarch affects everybody, I’ve met King Charles and I think he will be a great king, but we need to give him time.

“He’s following on from his mother and has been impeccable as a son, you can see she has prepared him.”