‘GOD SAVE THE QUEEN’
Inside the Queen’s jaw-dropping Coronation with robe so heavy from diamonds and gold she couldn’t walk down the aisle
IT was a ceremony that captured the hearts and minds of a nation starved of glamour.
Hundreds of thousands braved pouring rain to line the streets from Buckingham Palace to the Abbey.
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And the pretty young Elizabeth, centre stage amid the pomp and pageantry, bowled over all who saw her both in the flesh and through the untapped medium of TV on June 2, 1953.
It was all so different from the year before.
Then, on February 7, 1952, she had been in mourning as she stepped off a plane on to British soil as the new Queen.
Just 25, she had hoped she would be much older before becoming monarch.
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But with the untimely death of her father George VI aged just 56, while she was on tour in Kenya, she was the same age as the first Elizabeth when she came to the throne.
She later said: “My father died much too young. So it was all a very sudden kind of taking on and making the best job you can, and accepting the fact of here you are, and it’s your fate.”
Her first Prime Minister was Sir Winston Churchill, who persuaded her to delay her coronation for 16 months and insisted it should not be broadcast live on TV.
But against his advice, as well as that of senior courtiers and the Archbishop of Canterbury, the new queen insisted that her subjects should witness the ceremony.
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The service from Westminster Abbey was watched by a UK audience of 27million, boosting the fledgling TV industry. Many people hired a set just for the occasion.
Nothing was left to chance. The Queen practised for her coronation by pinning sheets to her shoulders to simulate the heavy robes she would have to wear.
Her maids-of-honour hid bottles of smelling salts in their long white gloves in case they felt faint during the long ceremony.
And choir boys were given packed lunches of peanut butter and marmalade sandwiches — intended to have the opposite effect to a laxative.
Extra toilets were installed at the Abbey and a test was done to make sure that if they were all flushed at once, the noise would not be picked up by the BBC’s microphones.
The Chancellor increased the sugar ration from 10oz to 12oz a week so the nation could bake cakes.
Carnival atmosphere
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People began to bed down in the streets 48 hours before Coronation Day to make sure of a place close to the action.
By Monday evening, 500,000 well-wishers had already lined the seven-mile procession route, happily singing in the rain.
The carnival atmosphere was crowned with the news that climbers from a Commonwealth expedition had finally conquered the 29,000ft summit of Everest.
The Queen’s Coronation robe, designed by Norman Hartnell, was so heavy that she couldn’t set off down the Abbey’s aisle.
She had to whisper to the Archbishop of Canterbury to give her a push “to get me started”.
The white satin gown was encrusted with diamonds, gold and silver bullion, seed pearls, crystals, pale amethysts and sequins to create a shimmering effect.
Embroidery in pastel-coloured silks depicted the emblems of the United Kingdom and countries of the Commonwealth.
Theme of unity
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Her all-white bouquet echoed the symbolic theme of unity with orchids and lily-of-the-valley from England, more orchids from Wales, stephanotis from Scotland, and carnations from Scotland and the Isle of Man.
She wore a diamond collet necklace, made for Queen Victoria, and matching drop earrings, with the collar or chain of the Order of the Garter.
Her youth and beauty was in total contrast to the ancient ceremony with its archaic language that had barely changed in 900 years.
The Queen was anointed, sitting on the Coronation Chair, having shed all her robes and adornments and wearing a simple white dress.
Next came the crowning. The Archbishop held the crown above the Queen’s head for a few moments and then brought down the St Edward’s Crown.
This done, all the princes and princesses, peers and peeresses in the congregation put on their coronets and proclaimed: “God Save the Queen.”
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Trumpets sounded while gun salutes rang out at the Tower of London and throughout the country.
The Archbishop, Duke of Edinburgh and the senior nobility proclaimed: “God Save Queen Elizabeth. Long live Queen Elizabeth. May the Queen live forever!”
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