'Very noble': Lieutenant governors remember Queen Elizabeth II as elegant and kind

In the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Manitoba’s current and past lieutenant governors are expressing their heartfelt sympathies and remembering the time they spent with the Queen.

On Thursday, it was announced that Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 following 70 years on the throne.

Manitoba’s Lieutenant-Governor Janice C. Filmon, who met the Queen on a number of occasions, described her as gracious and informed.

“I have to let you know, she was just so kind,” she said in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Friday.

Filmon said her love of the Queen started with books.

She explained that her mother’s family came from England, so Filmon’s relatives would send her and her sister books about the royals.

“There we would be two little girls from Winnipeg thinking, ‘Could we possibly be like these real princesses?’” she said.

“They were sisters – Elizabeth and Margaret – and we would fantasize about all of it. Who would ever know that all those years later that I would have this incredible honour to represent her?”

Philip Lee, Manitoba’s former Lieutenant Governor, also had the chance to meet the Queen a number of times.

Lee said he was shocked when he found out about her death on Thursday.

“It’s a big shock, I believe to the whole world,” he said in a Friday interview.

The former lieutenant governor met the Queen four times, the first time being in 1984 and the final being in 2010.

Lee said she was “very personable.”

“She was such an elegant lady. She was very, very noble,” he said.

- With files from CTV News' Nicole Dube and Rachel Lagace