ACROSS Colchester, people have been paying their respects to the Queen.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday, September 8, at the age of 96.

Up and down the United Kingdom, and across the world, people have been honoring the Queen and offering their condolences.

More than 280 messages of condolence have been left on the Gazette website for the Queen and the royal family since Her Majesty died.

Each message is a heartfelt tribute to our longest-reigning monarch.

Kate Jordan said: “Your Majesty, we all knew this time would come, and yet we were never going to be ready to lose you.

“Apart from the incredible service you have dedicated your life to, you have quite simply been that single comforting, grounding energy, a torchlight gently guiding us through the ever-changing decades.

“People of the future will never know what a privilege it has been to live through part of your great reign.”

Fiona Morgan added: “I am 68 years old and so the Queen has always been in my life.

“We will never have such an amazing dedicated and conscientious sovereign again.

“So many I have spoken to in the last few days have said the same. We thought she would always be with us.

“She will be so sadly missed but it’s now her time to rest and be with her beloved husband Phillip again.”

Well-wishers also shared times they or their family had met Her Majesty.

Jamie Bremer said: “I met Her Majesty the Queen at a Commonwealth Youth Exchange Ceremony held in Leicester Square in the summer of 1992.

“She was just lovely and showed a genuine interest in me which I will never forget.

“She also presented my Grandmother with an MBE a few years later.”

Helen Cooper added: “I was born in November 1952 and Queen Elizabeth II has been the only monarch in my lifetime

“I thank you for your lifetime of service to this country and other countries of the Commonwealth.

“My mother who passed away in 2006, at the age of 92, told me many times how she met the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret when they used to go walking through the park with their governess and how they would come over and pat her dog Towser.”