The Queen’s crowning glory in black and white
ON CORONATION Day, I was 11 and along with my grandparents and a dozen neighbours, we crowded into Mrs McIntosh’s Edinburgh council flat to watch the events at Westminister Abbey on her tiny black and white TV. When the Great and the Good cheered ‘God Save The Queen!’, Mrs McIntosh said: ‘Well, there she is, Good Queen Bess. This is a historic moment you’ll never forget.’ I certainly have always remembered that special day.
JACK McKENZIE, Deal, Kent. MOST people have only known the Queen as their monarch. However, by the time I was 17, I had lived during the reign of four monarchs. I was born in 1935 when George V was on the throne. He died in January 1936 and was succeeded by Edward VIII, who abdicated that December and his brother George VI became our monarch. On his death in 1952, his daughter became Elizabeth II.
Mrs SHIRLEY STAPLEY, Plymouth, Devon. I AM full of admiration for the Queen, but come on, BBC, give us a break on Saturday night. There are royal programmes from 4.40pm until 10.30pm. We don’t all have Netflix or Sky to fall back on.
PETER DAWSON, Maghull, Merseyside. WE KNOW about the Great and the Good who organised and took part in the Coronation, but what about the backroom boys? My late neighbour, Eric Bedford CVO CBE, was the youngest-ever chief architect to the Ministry of Works, responsible for every building in the world belonging to the British Government and the instigator and designer of the Post Office tower. He was a self-effacing fellow despite being responsible for all of the Coronation’s building works and the ornate decorations. He commissioned the Queen’s Beasts — the sovereign’s guard of ten heraldic statues outside the Abbey. Eric and his wife took their places in Westminster Abbey at 8am. It was to be a long day. The weather was awful and Eric feared the Coronation arches along the Mall would collapse. If they had, he feared it would be the Tower for him! In the crypt of the abbey, temporary lavatories had been installed for the guests. It had been forgotten to place restrainers on the doors, so all Eric could hear was ‘Bang! Crash!’ every time they were used. He told me his nerves were shredded. As we all know, the day went well — in no small part due to Eric’s efforts — with the watching world enjoying every minute.