THE MP for North Dorset has described Her Majesty the Queen as a “towering example of beautiful service” following her passing at the age of 96.

MP Simon Hoare said the Queen was a reminder of the huge support that faith can give individuals and “a great example of what we as human beings can be.”

Mr Hoare told the Echo: “When I drive up to London I drive past Stonehenge and I think it feels like Stonehenge is gone.

“I think we all knew that this day was going to come because we’re all human but we all hoped that today wouldn't be the day.

Read more: IN PICTURES: When the Queen visited Dorset during her reign

“So I think there's just a huge sense of sadness, a real sense of loss and at a time where there is so much change and turbulence going on within our national life and indeed internationally, to have lost the most important foundation stone of our national life is devastatingly sad.

“I think she allowed us to see what we all could be ourselves, serving others not self serving. We’re all familiar with that phrase of devotion to duty, a calm stoicism, just getting on with things, rolling with the punches.

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“If we think of the enormous changes that she witnessed during the course of her life, the medical, technological, political, the change from empire to tiny commonwealth to big commonwealth, all of those changes, a lot of people would have been phased by it but she was able to adapt and reflect the world as it was, not how she might have wanted it to be so I think just a towering example of beautiful service.

“I think as well, a reminder of the huge support that faith can give individuals.

"I think everybody recognises that her faith, not just as head of the Church of England, but her faith that she saw herself as a servant, a servant of the people, a servant of the crown, a servant of the institutions of the country.

"In the New Testament our Lord talks about him as a servant and I think that shaped and moulded how she performed her duties.

“Never in all of those years put a foot wrong, caused a scandal, caused an embarrassment to the nation.

“I think she is just a great example of what we as human beings can be.

“I don't think any of us alive today are going to witness a reign of that length or a period of such dramatic changes in all aspects of life that we’ve seen over these last 70 years.

“An end of an era is something which is used so often but it is, this is the end of the Elizabethan era and a new chapter of our nation's history begins.”