Glasgow belongs to the Queen on her Coronation tour

THE Queen didn’t get much of a rest after her coronation in June, 1953. She went on a Coronation Tour and here she is in George Square, Glasgow, inspecting the Scots Guards just three weeks later.

It is not apparent in this picture, but the square was crowded with cheery onlookers who broke through the police line and swept up to the doors of the City Chambers just as the Queen and Prince Philip went inside for lunch.

The timing in the middle of the day meant many folk working in the city simply left their offices for an early lunch and went back late.

Twice the Queen went out on the balcony overlooking the square to wave to the crowds who were chanting for her. It was a hot, sunny day, and a number of folk were taken to the Royal Infirmary after fainting, and a few fell when the crowds surged forward, but no-one was seriously injured.

The Royal Couple then went slowly in an open-topped Rolls- Royce to Hampden Park along streets full of waving citizens where they attended a youth rally for more than an hour.

Earlier, they had arrived in the Royal Train at Paisley Gilmour Street where an estimated 100,000 people turned out to see them. The Glasgow Herald claimed the crowds in Paisley and Glasgow were the largest ever for a Royal visit in the West of Scotland. It was a Glasgow “that belonged to The Queen,” said The Herald.

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