With the King’s coronation dominating the news at the moment, I thought it was time to recall the previous coronation.
My mother was in England at the time, on the obligatory working holiday, and I grew up with stories about that time. As well as the poverty of the East End at the time, and the “Great Smog”, the subjects of her reminiscences included the coronation.
She had a seat in a stand along the procession route that allowed her to watch the proceedings. It rained heavily on and off during that day and she recalled feeling very sorry for the poor policemen who had to put their raincoats on, then take them off and roll them up, then get them out again and put them on, then take them off and so on. Like everyone who was there, the Queen of Tonga waving to the crowd as if the crowd had gathered just to see her was a favourite memory.
When cleaning out my father’s house back in 2020 a box of letters came to light. They were the letters she had sent back to her parents while she was away.
I searched for the letters covering the period of the coronation to see what she had to say.
31.6.53
I left you in my last letter having just returned from Paris. We arrived back to find the whole of London agog with coronation fever. In the short time that we had been away London had been transformed. Never before in history has London been such a blaze of colour - nor could you ever imagine the seething mass of people. Travelling unless you have all day to spare is a virtual impossibility.
On Saturday afternoon last week Denys drove his mother … & I [sic] around the coronation route. Doubtless you have seen pictures in the Sydney papers which give you a better idea of what the decorations are like than any word picture I could paint.
Although I failed to gain a seat in the ballot [in the stands to watch the procession] I was lucky because, either due to the fact that Australia House was given a larger allocation of seats than they anticipated, or perhaps quite a few people made alternative arrangements, they had a number over & consequently as so often happens by going in during the week I got a seat in Piccadilly. Of course it cost £4 but I'm sure that I would have never seen otherwise & I should imagine there will not be another coronation in my lifetime.
Seat or no seat we have to be in position by about 6.30 am with about a 9 hour wait ahead of us before we see anything. In my next letter I'll tell you whether it was worth it or not.
Her comment about not seeing another coronation in her life time stood out to me, because she was two years younger than the Queen. Yet her prediction about not seeing another coronation was correct, as she predeceased the Queen by eighteen years.
Her next letter was started as she waited for the proceedings to start.
Stand No 24
(near Green Park)
Piccadilly
2.06.53
Dear Mum & Dad
Well it is now 8.15 am & for the last hour and a half I have been in my position in the stand. The ease with which I arrived here was fantastic. I was laughingly escorted part of the way by Arthur & Denys albeit a trifle sleepy having been up since 4.30. I nevertheless managed to stagger here armed with food & a thermos capped by chocolates & a bottle of wine a present from the boys…
The crowd is extremely orderly & good natured & although we face a seven hour wait before the procession proper already there seems to be a hushed air of expectancy. Amplifiers [sic] have been placed at convenient points all along the route & the B.B.C. is doing a magnificent job keeping up the spirits of a somewhat frozen crowd. Anything that passes is greeted with cheers. Earlier two coaches passed obviously carrying Abbey guests & a brave gentlemen on a push bike merrily lifted his hat to the crowd as he pedalled along followed by cheers. The troops have started to line the route & the police are practically shoulder to shoulder along both sides of the Road. Never before have I seen so many policemen.
4.6.53 [same letter]
I was unable to continue this letter on the spot as I would have like to have done as soon after I had written that much the rain started to come down & unfortunately as you know continued most the day so that really by about 1.30 everyone (or at least I was) was very cold & miserable & rather subdued.
The whole ceremony was broadcast to us & one of the things which impressed me most of all was the almost reverent silence of the crowd during the whole of the service. You could have practically heard a pin drop. It seems hard to believe that so many people crowded together could make so little noise. The B.B.C. really rose to the occasion & the reception of the ceremony was excellent.
I had a very good view of all the procession. The Pageantry was really unforgettable & you will see it all on the films so I won’t even attempt to describe it in detail.
Everyone around me agreed that Winston Churchill & the Queen of the Tongas rather stole the show & they are great showmen.
Well later on this week I'll write & tell you about my hectic doings that evening.
As promised, her
next letter detailed her activities that evening.
7.6.53
Coronation Issue No 2
Dear Mum & Dad,
I left you in the last letter after the procession had passed us & after that I wended my somewhat weary way towards the party. I might add I had only about two hundred yards to go but it took me nearly an hour & a half. After a couple of drinks and a short rest in a comfortable armchair I revived somewhat…
We then had a buffet tea & watched the ceremony re-televised. After that we all climbed onto the roof & watched the fireworks & had a marvellous view of London by floodlight. Somehow or other we managed to have the strength then to go on to Le Petit Club Français where we danced amongst Bohemian people till about 2 o'clock.
Finding it extremely difficult to get a taxi we wandered along Piccadilly & saw the tail end of the merrymaking in the streets. It was 3.30 before I fell into bed…
The Coronation had been the focal point for everyone's plans for so long that for rest of last week everyone in London seemed very flat - a sort of anticlimax.
I realise that her letters were written on an air letter, so she had limited space to write, but I was surprised that she didn’t mention her impressions of the gold state coach (which, to me, looks like something out of Cinderella), or the length of the procession (it was supposed to have taken 45 minutes to pass a single point), or the large number of representatives of the armed forces of the Commonwealth countries. I was also surprised, given her comment about Winston Churchill in her letter, that she'd never mentioned it to me.
I know that money was tight when she was living in London, but I am also surprised that she never brought back any coronation souvenirs, apart from a couple of postcards that are in her photo album. The album also contained a couple of photos she took on the day, which I have reproduced here. She did bring back the newspapers of the day, which I remember seeing, but by the time the house was cleared my father had thrown them out.
