1953: Surge of excitement to greet the new young Queen

RUSSELL LEADBETTER

THE Queen’s Coronation at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953, was seen and heard by millions on radio and television. Celebrations of every kind were staged across the country. Even the prisoners at Dartmoor were caught up in the excitement, listening to the radio all day and poring over the newspapers.

Large and enthusiastic crowds greeted the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh when they arrived in Edinburgh on a State Visit to Scotland on the 23rd. More than 500 debutantes and their sponsors made their double curtsies to the royal couple in the Throne Room at Holyroodhouse. Two days later the Queen and Duke toured, by car, Paisley (where they were greeted by nearly 100,000 people), Glasgow and Rutherglen. “All along the route, but particularly in

George Square, where the crowds broke through the police and military cordon,” the Glasgow Herald recorded, “the welcome rivalled in enthusiasm those of the London and Edinburgh ceremonies.” Before and during the Queen’s inspection in George Square of the guard of honour formed by the 2nd Battalion the Scots Guards, people broke through the cordon. Time and again the police re-formed it, with the assistance of a unit of the Royal Artillery, plainclothed CID officers and even a young nurse in uniform. Some people were taken to the Royal Infirmary with slight injuries.

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