THE DAY A PRINCESS BECAME THE QUEEN
It was 65 years ago today that 8,000 people packed Westminster Abbey to witness the coronation of Elizabeth II, while another 20m watched it on TV
THE organisers of the 1953 coronation of Princess Elizabeth knew that the eyes of the world would be upon the ceremony they designed. Months before the event senior military advisers, constitutional experts and politicians busied themselves preparing the stage for the accession of the new sovereign.
But, as a new book reveals, they frequently did this in a much more spirited and spontaneous way than one might imagine.
From a forgotten coronet to the practicalities of being a rotund Sea Lord forced to ride a horse, their words lift the veil on what really went on during the build-up to that memorable day.
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET, SIR HENRY LEACH (1923-2011)
The decision was taken that the Armed Service lords would ride white horses. For the Army that of course was very easy, they were used to it. For the Air Force it was not, nor was it for the Navy. The Second Sea Lord of the day and the Fourth Sea Lord of the day were both rather plump men and I can distinctly remember seeing their notes, which said: “This is a ceremonial occasion of international importance, not a circus, we will not ride.”
Later it was discovered that to be proper, a naval officer should wear box spurs when mounted. And of course we had none. So the records were looked up and acceptable spurs for the Admiralty board members were produced. They were very diffident about rehearsing, because they were pretty shaky on horses. They arranged they would do their rehearsing at Hyde Park at seven o’clock in the morning.
The First Sea Lord Sir Rhoderick McGrigor was absolutely bored rigid – he had other things to do – and sat like a sack of spuds on his horse and he rode swinging his feet to and fro. But on the first day they were wearing their spurs he inadvertently touched his horse’s flank, forgetting he had his spurs on.
And you know what it is if you have a line of steeds: the horses all flashed past the line, disappearing into the distance. The Third Sea Lord was a great big, heavy man called Sir Ralph Edwards. His horse took off – he had no control over it. He headed for his stable and threw this great, heavy man, who landed on his head and was knocked out.
ROBERT LACEY, 74
The Queen’s biographer was aged nine in 1953 On the day of the coronation itself we all went next door to our neighbours, who had actually bought a television – they were considered quite affluent people: they went away every summer on a foreign holiday. All the children were invited and we sat on hard wooden chairs.
We started relatively early in the morning and watched this little blue flickering screen in the corner at the table from nine o’clock in the morning until teatime. And the mothers collaborated on producing sandwiches for lunch for us.
I remember being very intrigued as a nine-year-old boy by talk of the sacred moment of the anointing when the Queen would be under a canopy, alone with the archbishop, and this was something that would not be televised: it was very secret and private.
I wondered if she took off the top of her dress to be anointed on her bare breasts, although that is a horrific thought for a respectable young boy to have about the Queen.
BRYAN FORBES (1926-2013)
Film director and friend of Princess Margaret On the day she was crowned Queen news came through that Hillary had ascended Everest so there was a feeling that things were happening.
Mostly it came out of the awfulness of the war and the Blitz. So people suddenly saw a young Queen and her name obviously struck echoes of the first Elizabeth, one of the golden ages of history. And therefore people tended to equate the two. That came from a feeling of relief that the war was behind us and there was a future at long last. And the coronation of a young Queen – a very beautiful young Queen – was a factor.
ELIZABETH PAKENHAM (1906-2002)
Wife of Frank, 7th Earl of Longford Frank’s uncle Lord Dunsany gave Frank and me a lift. He came round in a car and we set off. And he suddenly said: “I’m just going to stop for a minute, I left my coronet in Ireland by mistake. I’m going to try and borrow one from one of the peers I know is away and won’t be using his.”
He tried somebody like Lord Astor and we stopped outside – it was somewhere in Berkeley Square – and he got out, went to the front door and rang the bell. The butler came downstairs. They had a little confabulation. And then Uncle Eddie, as we called him, came back into the car with a large box in his arms containing the Astor coronet. That gave me the feeling that this coronation was a bit off – people forgetting their coronets.
PHILIP ZIEGLER, 89
Former diplomat whose authorised biography of the Queen’s uncle Edward VIII won the Elizabeth Longford prize in 2011 Like everybody else I talked to, I found enormously moving the moment when she was stripped of all the robes of state, this small girl with all the harpies crouched around – the archbishops, the dignitaries and all the potentates of state – this small, shy, exposed girl who was robed again and came back as the titular monarch. It was a wonderful spectacle, very moving indeed.”
LORD HEALEY (1917-2015)
Former chancellor of the Exchequer I had just been an MP for a few months and I went to the coronation in the abbey and they let you keep the chairs you sat on, so we have got them at home. They’re blue velvet with the royal crest.
The Monarchy by Deborah Hart Strober & Gerald S Strober is available as an ebook (£3.99) and paperback (£14.99) from Thistle Publishing