King George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham within the early hours of February 6, 1952. At that second, 3,000 miles away in Kenya, his daughter Princess Elizabeth turned Queen.
Preparations started instantly for a ceremony basically unchanged for the reason that coronation in AD 973 of the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar. Elizabeth’s Coronation needed to go easily as it might be a world event; by no means earlier than had so many individuals witnessed the identical occasion on the similar time.
In her Christmas broadcast in 1952 the Queen mentioned: ‘Pray for me on that day. Pray that God could give me knowledge and energy to hold out the solemn guarantees I shall be making.’
King George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham within the early hours of February 6, 1952. At that second, 3,000 miles away in Kenya, his daughter Princess Elizabeth turned Queen
June 2, 1953: 4am
The date of June 2 had been chosen as a result of meteorologists had calculated that it might be the sunniest day of the 12 months. It’s raining. Alongside the six-mile processional route, half one million folks have been tenting out all evening.
Journalist Philip Hope-Wallace notes: ‘Crowds schooled to take a seat out the Luftwaffe’s visits on laborious chilly stone weren’t going to be delay by a drop of rain.’ Among the many crowds are a household who’ve come from Australia in a crusing boat.
A whole bunch of souvenirs are on the market, from tea caddies, mugs, bicycle pennants to Dinky Toys of the State Coach.
5am
In Westminster Abbey a steward finds Matins, a cat owned by one of many clergy, quick asleep on the Coronation Chair. The Coronation regalia, specified by a close-by annex, is being watched by eight Yeoman Warders or ‘Beefeaters’ armed with revolvers and 12 rounds of ammunition.
The Abbey has been closed for six months to construct the tiers of seats for MPs and the aristocracy. The capability has been raised from 2,000 to eight,000. A small railway line to move all of the supplies wanted has been constructed from the West Door to the altar, with department traces heading north and south.
The additional seats have been examined by members of the armed providers who spent two hours sitting up and down on them to test they had been protected. The chairs’ padding is made to express specs — 12 per cent cow tail hair, 12 per cent horse mane hair and 76 per cent North American gray winter hog.
5.30am
For the previous few days, BBC commentator Richard Dimbleby has been sleeping on his Dutch crusing barge Vabel, moored on the Thames reverse Westminster. A police launch arrives to take him throughout the river. Dimbleby has with him pages of notes that he has been engaged on for six months. On the radio, the BBC Mild Programme begins a number of ‘Music Whereas You Wait.’
6am
The doorways of Westminster Abbey are opened for friends. At the moment, the complete choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral and St George’s Chapel, Windsor, will likely be participating, however such is the size of the event that singers from across the nation have been invited to swell their numbers.
In Bromley, Kent, 32-year-old Scott Joynt, one among 67 basses who will likely be singing, leaves his dwelling in full morning swimsuit and jumps on a milk float for a raise to the station.
6.30am
The entrance web page of early editions of this morning’s Every day Mail has a full web page drawing of the Queen’s Coronation costume, which the paper describes as ‘beautiful past perception’. Its designer, Norman Hartnell, arrives on the Palace.
The costume is embroidered with flowers and crops representing the British Isles and every nation of the Commonwealth, together with jute and wheat for Pakistan, Australia’s wattle and the maple leaf for Canada. Solely the Queen and Hartnell know that there’s a four-leaf clover on the left-hand aspect of the skirt which she will discreetly contact through the lengthy day forward.
7am
Of their houses throughout London, the Queen’s six Maids of Honour, all daughters of earls, marquesses or dukes, are being given make-up by employees from Elizabeth Arden that may have the ability to address the intense tv lights within the Abbey.
The Maids of Honour have been given footwear with totally different sized heels, in order that they would be the similar peak once they carry the Queen’s 21 ft purple velvet, ermine-trimmed practice.
The entrance web page of early editions of this morning’s Every day Mail has a full web page drawing of the Queen’s Coronation costume, which the paper describes as ‘beautiful past perception’
7.15am
Greater than 6,500 additional trains and 6,000 additional coaches have introduced folks to London. There are actually 2 million well-wishers on the procession route. Loudspeakers alongside the route announce the dramatic information that Mount Everest has been conquered for the primary time.
New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese sherpa Tenzing Norgay, a part of a British-led expedition, have reached the summit. Within the Palace, the 27-year-old Queen hears the group cheer. The Every day Mail adjustments its entrance web page headline to: ‘The Crowning Glory — Everest Conquered.’
7.30am
At Buckingham Palace, the Queen is being dressed underneath Norman Hartnell’s supervision. Within the earlier weeks she has rehearsed the sophisticated service in one of many State Rooms on the Palace, with the form of the Abbey nave marked out in tape on the ground. Elizabeth had two white mattress sheets pinned to her shoulders as a substitute of the 21 ft practice.
To get used to the load of the crown, the Queen has been carrying it whereas consuming tea and studying a newspaper, and she or he additionally listened to recordings of her father’s Coronation.
On the final Abbey rehearsal, the Queen requested the Bishop of Durham, Michael Ramsey, if he might preserve his bushy eyebrows nonetheless ‘as a result of they make me smile and I don’t want to smile within the mistaken place’.
8am
Processions by an important friends start, led by the coach of the Lord Mayor of London, adopted by senior members of the Royal Household, Commonwealth leaders and heads of state. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, carrying an Admiral’s uniform, waves to the cheering crowds. He’s a fan of the brand new Queen: ‘All of the movie folks on the earth, if that they had scoured the globe, couldn’t have discovered anybody so suited to the half.’
The Coronation is being lined by greater than 2,000 journalists and 500 photographers from around the globe. Among the many many overseas reporters is Jacqueline Bouvier, who’s working for the Washington Instances-Herald. In three weeks’ time she is going to announce her engagement to a younger politician named John F Kennedy.
8.15am
Because the son of the Duke of Devonshire will get out of the carriage, his sword rips a gap in his father’s robes, however there are tailors available within the Abbey for such an emergency.
Area Marshal Viscount ‘Monty’ Montgomery is in his seat studying a newspaper, others are consuming snacks and shivering due to the chilly. One peeress later complains that she watched her arms flip blue. Thirty-six massive followers have been put in to maintain the congregation cool within the anticipated sizzling climate, however aren’t wanted.
9.15am
Prince Philip’s three surviving sisters, Sophie, Theodora and Margarita, stroll up the aisle to take their seats. They weren’t invited to his wedding ceremony in 1947 as that they had married Germans, a few of whom had Nazi hyperlinks, however they’re right here immediately with their husbands because it was felt public animosity to Germans had softened.
Strolling with them is Philip’s mom Alice, carrying a gray nun’s behavior of the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary that she had made for immediately.
Road events are starting across the nation. Rationing remains to be in drive, however Churchill has decreed that each family ought to get an additional pound of sugar on their rationÂ
9.30am
Road events are starting across the nation. Rationing remains to be in drive, however Churchill has decreed that each family ought to get an additional pound of sugar on their ration, regardless of the reservations of the Ministry of Meals. Caterers have been allowed further fats and sugar to make crisps, muffins and toffee apples.
The Queen has declared an amnesty for wartime deserters, a few of whom have been on the run since 1945.
10.15am
The BBC tv protection begins. Continuity announcer Sylvia Peters says that it’s ‘the best second in tv historical past.’ The BBC is staging its greatest outdoors broadcast ever with 21 cameras, together with 5 within the Abbey. Churchill and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher, had been adamant that the ceremony was too sacred to be on tv. The Queen had initially agreed till public indignation modified her thoughts.
Hundreds have purchased or rented tv units for the primary time. Some households have a big magnifying glass hooked up to the display to reinforce the image.
Greater than one million individuals are additionally watching the protection in cinemas, theatres and pubs. Butlin’s vacation camps at Filey, Yorkshire, and Skegness, Lincolnshire, are displaying the Coronation of their dance halls.
10.20am
The Queen and Prince Philip go away Buckingham Palace within the four-tonne State Coach, pulled by eight greys. 4-year outdated Prince Charles and two-year-old Princess Anne watch from the home windows.
The Queen is carrying Queen Victoria’s diadem on her head and Philip is carrying the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet.
The gang see the Queen’s bouquet for the primary time, it’s made up of orchids and lilies-of-the-valley from England, stephanotis from Scotland, orchids from Wales, and carnations from Northern Eire and the Isle of Man.
10.25am
Princess Margaret takes her seat within the Abbey subsequent to her mom. For the previous few months, Margaret has been in a relationship with the just lately divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend, a former equerry to her father and 16 years her senior.
The Queen and Prince Philip learn about their plans to marry, however their relationship isn’t public.
10.36am
The congregation get up immediately as they assume the Queen has arrived, however the one figures that seem are cleaners armed with carpet sweepers.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was not amused. He wrote later: ‘After the numerous solemn processions ending with that of the Queen Mom, the cleaners created an undesirable and disturbing anti-climax.’
Watching over proceedings is Bernard Fitzalan-Howard the Duke of Norfolk, the hereditary Earl Marshal, who organised the Coronation of George VI. His ancestors have organised coronations since 1386.
There have been 12 Abbey rehearsals in complete, with the Duchess of Norfolk standing in for the Queen at most of them. Acutely aware of his balding head underneath the tv lights, the Duke has organized for it to be powdered just a few instances through the morning.
10.50am
The Maids of Honour are ready for the Queen on the Abbey steps. They’ve all been given vials of smelling salts, which they’ve hidden of their lengthy white gloves. The Archbishop of Canterbury comes up and shakes Rosie Spencer-Churchill by the hand and breaks her vial, making a robust odor. ‘Good heavens!’ the Archbishop exclaims. ‘What on earth have you ever accomplished?’ The six ladies dissolve into matches of giggles.
The Queen arrives on the Abbey and goes to a separate room to organize for the service. A tv digicam simply 12 ft away offers viewers their closest view but of the Queen
11am
The Queen arrives on the Abbey and goes to a separate room to organize for the service. A tv digicam simply 12 ft away offers viewers their closest view but of the Queen, who’s trying nervous.
There had been concern after her father’s dying that she wouldn’t have the ability to address the issues of state. The Nationwide Federation of Ladies’s Institutes handed a decision stating that the nation ‘ought to endeavour to not overwork our beloved younger Queen, remembering that she has duties additionally as a spouse and mom’.
11.15am
The Queen seems by the West Door, and a handkerchief is waved on the Abbey organist who begins to play Hubert Parry’s anthem I Was Glad. Elizabeth turns to her Maids of Honour and says: ‘Prepared, ladies?’ and so they begin to stroll holding her lengthy practice. The Queen struggles at first to maneuver her costume in opposition to the pile of the carpet.
On both aspect of the Queen are the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Tub and Wells, who will likely be along with her all through the service. At one rehearsal it was realised somebody had forgotten to ask them, so an categorical practice made an unscheduled cease at Tub to choose up the Bishop of Tub and Wells, whereas the Bishop of Durham’s haircut in Cambridge was interrupted by a policeman who introduced him by automobile to the Abbey.
11.30am
Within the a part of the service generally known as the Recognition, to point out the monarch is just not an imposter, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Queen face all 4 sides of the Abbey in flip and every time Dr Fisher presents ‘your undoubted Queen’ to the congregation and so they shout again ‘God Save Queen Elizabeth!’
The tv and radio viewers can hear the Queen’s phrases, as a result of a small gap for a gilded microphone has been made within the carpet underneath the Throne. There’s one other microphone hooked up to the kneeling stool on the Chair of Property and one other on high of the Coronation Chair, often known as St Edward’s Chair.
Prince Charles has been introduced into the Abbey by his nanny and is seated subsequent to the Queen Mom. Charles is wearing a white silk swimsuit and is making his first ceremonial look. As he watches his mom he often sucks his thumb. In later life Charles remembers little of the day, besides that the Palace barber minimize his hair too brief and had flattened it with ‘probably the most appalling gunge’.
Near Charles is Andrew Parker Bowles, the web page to the Lord Chancellor, and later the primary husband of Camilla.
11.50am
The reside tv photos are being seen in Europe. The Duke of Windsor, previously Edward VIII, is watching his niece’s coronation at an American good friend’s home in Paris. He had hoped that he and the Duchess can be invited, however the Queen was adamant they shouldn’t be there.
The Duke has a tempestuous relationship with the Royal Household. He wrote to his spouse Wallis the earlier 12 months: ‘What a smug stinking lot my relations are and also you’ve by no means seen such a seedy worn-out bunch of outdated hags most of them have develop into.’
As he watches the Coronation, the Duke explains to Individuals what’s occurring and infrequently makes impolite feedback. However the Duke later wrote he thought ‘Lilibet performed herself fantastically.’
Noon
After the Oath, throughout which the Queen guarantees to control her peoples ‘in keeping with their legal guidelines and customs’, is the primary a part of the Communion service.
Then follows the anointing, probably the most sacred a part of the ceremony. The Queen’s jewelry (besides her earrings), her crimson gown and practice are eliminated and she or he places on a plain white gown and sits within the Coronation Chair.
A golden cover is held over the Queen by 4 Knights of the Garter to display her from public gaze and the cameras as she is anointed with holy oil.
The vial containing the oil first made for Edward VII’s Coronation was destroyed when a bomb hit the Deanery in 1941, so a brand new batch has been made utilizing the standard substances of sesame oil, olive oil and alcohol perfumed with cinnamon, musk and jasmine.
The Ministry of Works organized a lunch hosted by the Queen for 350 friends within the Abbey AnnexeÂ
12.20pm
For a second, the Queen appears drained and she or he wipes her hand over her brow and turns to search for Philip. In 1821, the event made George IV sweat a lot he used up 19 handkerchiefs.
With the Queen robed as soon as extra and holding the Coronation regalia, the Archbishop picks up the Crown of St Edward. It comprises 440 valuable and semi-precious stones and for immediately a small gold star has been added to the entrance so the Archbishop can put it on the Queen’s head the correct method.
As he does so, the 8,000-strong congregation shout ‘God save the Queen!’ A brand new Elizabethan Age has begun.
1pm
Prince Philip is the primary to pay homage to the brand new monarch. He kneels and says: ‘I, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh do develop into your liege man of life and limb and of earthly worship’. He holds her palms, then touches the crown and kisses his spouse on the cheek.
The Crown shifted when he touched it, so the Queen lifts a hand to regular it. Through the rehearsal Philip had mumbled his phrases, jumped up and kissed the air a few foot from the Queen. She had known as out: ‘Come again, Philip, and do it — correctly!’
1.40pm
The Queen steps down from the Coronation Chair and the choir sings William Walton’s Te Deum. The composer is within the congregation with a provide of whisky miniatures hidden in his hat. One BBC cameraman is so near the conductor of the orchestra that his head is being hit by the baton.
The Queen made only one mistake — she forgot to curtsey to her Maids of Honour, who had been disillusioned to overlook their well-rehearsed curtsey again. Strolling in entrance of the Queen as she walks in direction of the West Door is Simon Benton Jones, the web page to the Duke of Richmond. Simon’s mom was involved one among his buckled footwear may come off and journey the Queen, so she tied them on with elastic.
2pm
The Ministry of Works organized a lunch hosted by the Queen for 350 friends within the Abbey Annexe. A dish known as Coronation Hen, invented for the event by Rosemary Hume of the London Cookery Faculty, is served for the primary time.
Movie of the ceremony is on its solution to a ready RAF Canberra bomber able to fly to Canada for his or her broadcast of the Coronation while the U.S. community CBS has employed a jet from the BOAC (British Abroad Airways Company) with enhancing services on board.
2.50pm
The Queen leaves the Abbey for Buckingham Palace in a heavy downpour. Whereas ready for a carriage to take her again to the Palace, Princess Margaret spots Group Captain Peter Townsend and brushes off a chunk of fluff hooked up to his RAF uniform.
This gesture was noticed by the Press and their relationship was quickly on each entrance web page. Marrying a divorcee and a commoner proved an impossibility and after two years, Margaret introduced the connection was over.
3pm
The processional path to the Palace has been designed so it may very well be seen by as many individuals as doable. It goes through Trafalgar Sq., Marble Arch, Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus, taking virtually two hours. Greater than 29 navy bands and 30,000 servicemen from across the Commonwealth are participating.
In Korea, the place the warfare has been waging for 3 years, British troops fireplace shells containing purple, white and blue smoke.
4.30pm
Because the Queen arrives at Buckingham Palace the group surges in direction of the gates to get a great spot for when the Royal Household seem on the balcony. The faces of Palace servants might be seen at virtually each window. Photographer Cecil Beaton is inside and hears the voice of the Queen excitedly speaking to her household ‘Oh hiya! Did you watch it?’
Though Beaton doesn’t learn about her relationship with Peter Townsend, he sensed that there was one thing totally different about Princess Margaret. He wrote in his diary later that day that she walked in direction of him ‘with pink and white make-up and a intercourse twinkle of understanding in her regard’. The Queen tells Beaton that her palms and nostril are chilly after the lengthy carriage trip.
5.40pm
The Queen seems with the Royal Household and her Maids of Honour on the balcony. Prince Charles is fascinated by the Queen’s bracelets, however he’s then distracted by an RAF fly-past of 20 Meteor jets forming the letters ER.
Just a few weeks earlier, Prince Philip had come onto the balcony the place he appeared up on the sky as if he was carrying an imaginary crown; he was calculating if it was doable for the Queen to lift her head to look at the planes, whereas ensuring the crown wouldn’t fall off.
6pm
As Cecil Beaton takes the official images within the Inexperienced Drawing Room, he’s being teased by Prince Philip, who had needed his good friend Baron to take the images. At one level Beaton glared on the Prince and mentioned, ‘Sir, if you need to take the images, please do.’ The Queen has commissioned her personal ‘behind the scenes’ movie of the day.
The digicam picks up Princess Margaret trying unhappy. Years later, Margaret’s good friend Anne Glenconner, one of many Maids of Honour requested her about it. She replied: ‘After all I appeared unhappy, Anne. I had simply misplaced my beloved father, and, actually, I had simply misplaced my sister, as a result of she was going to be so busy and had already moved to Buckingham Palace, so it was simply me and the Queen Mom.’
9pm
The brand new Queen broadcasts a message to the nation and the Commonwealth: ‘I’ve in sincerity pledged myself to your service as so a lot of you might be pledged to mine. All through my life and with all my coronary heart I shall try to be worthy of your belief.’
The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Norfolk are on the HQ of Pathé Information watching color movie of the day which will likely be was a cinema launch. They ask for less than two photographs to be eliminated, the Queen receiving Communion and a detailed up of the Queen Mom which they felt lingered too lengthy.
10pm
In Hyde Park, Lord Rowallan the Chief Scout lights a bonfire, which is the cue for tons of of beacons to be lit throughout the nation, from Cornwall to the highest of Ben Nevis.
Noel Coward is performing his one-man present on the Haymarket Theatre. He thinks the viewers is ‘comatose’ after the thrill of the Coronation, ‘however we had been fortunate to have anybody there in any respect’.
Legend has it that when he was requested who the small gentleman was sitting reverse the statuesque Queen Salote of Tonga, Coward replied: ‘Her lunch’.
11.30pm
BBC commentator Richard Dimbleby is again within the Abbey to broadcast a short epilogue concerning the day. He’s dismayed to see the quantity of garbage left behind by the friends — sandwich wrappers, fruit peel, sweets and even miniature bottles of spirits.
One of many Abbey cleaners finds a diamond necklace. It gained’t be claimed for 2 months. The crowns and regalia have been returned to the Tower of London to await the subsequent coronation.
