Derbyshire school deliver condolence book for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to Buckingham Palace

The pupils and families from Bramley Vale Primary School put together a book full of artwork and messages following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

And they decided they wanted to see if they could deliver it to Buckingham Palace during a residential trip to London.

Rob Rumsby, headteacher, along with office manager, Lydia Knowles, and two pupil representatives, Leo Dodson and Arshpreet Bual, made the trip through the capital with the book.

Mr Rumsby said: “We were bowled over by the support and encouragment we had from people there.

"Things were very hectic in London.

“It was looking a bit dicey whether or not we could do anything with this book because it was all bouquets of flowers but there was lots of security there and through perserverance and the support of the security people we were able to get our book handed to a lady called Stella, who is part the security detail who has come down from Manchester, and she then made a point of passing it on to the MET security team for Buckingham Palace.

“We have since received a photo of two Metropolitan Police officers standing with our book of condolences in front of Buckingham Palace.

“So it’s made it through. We feel it’s a fantastic achievement. We started with a small idea with big hopes.

“We can only hope that maybe down the line somewhere we might get a response from one of the team who support King Charles III.

“A heartwarming end to a week of national reflection.

“For me it restored my trust and confidence in human beings because it could have gone nowhere.

"We could have been told to leave it with the flowers, which I couldn’t have done because it had messages and photographs of the children.

"That wouldn’t have been an appropriate end to its journey after taking it all the way from our school in Derbyshire, carrying it through the streets of London, clutched under our arms.

“It felt great.”