You need to be a bit of an old codger to remember Coronation Day. But at eleven years old on June 2nd 1953 my memories of the day are inevitably a little bit hazy. Luckily I owned a Kodak Brownie Box camera and kept a diary so, as we approach Jubilee Day 70 years later and feeling just a touch nostalgic, I thought I’d dig into the archives. Here’s my entry for June 2nd:
“Coronation Day of Queen Elizabeth II. Take photo of the house and the Coronation bunting. Mummy gives me a Crown Staffordshire cup, saucer and plate. Have breakfast quickly because lots of people are coming to watch the coronation on our new television. Everyone sits quietly during the processions and the service, even us children, but it’s a bit boring and we go upstairs to play Owzthat. Denis Compton captains my side and Hutton the other one. I win by three wickets. Mummy says the service was very lovely and most touching and the Queen was supremely dignified and beautiful. Have lunch of cold salmon, ham, salads, strawberries and cream and ice cream gateau. The grownups have champagne, we have orange squash (swizz). After lunch there’s another procession, then we have tea, then we are made to watch the Royal Family’s appearance on the Palace balcony. At last the guests leave and we’re allowed to watch the fireworks on the television. It’s been bitterly cold and rainy for the last few days…Mummy says she can’t imagine how so many people have slept on the pavements for the last two nights.”
“June 3rd. Mummy drives us five children to London in the Morris Eight (EOX 758). On the way we pick up our cousins Tanga and Gaby and Aunt Betty and cousin Anthony. We drive through Hyde Park and see many of the colonial troops returning from an investiture at Buckingham Palace. We follow part of the Queen’s route ending at the Palace. I take a few photos. We persuade Mummy to stay to see the Queen and the Duke start out on their ceremonial drive at 2pm. We climb on a platform on one of the stands and wait for one and a half hours. It’s extremely cold and some of the younger ones get very bored. Mummy gives us a few sweets and has a small bar of chocolate which she keeps giving to Alan (11 months old) to keep him quiet. We get a good view of the Royal car. Alan sleeps in his little seat on the way home and Simon is sick at Esher. We get home and have lunch-cum-tea at 3.45.”
“June 6th. In the afternoon I represent St Martins at an athletics meeting at Stompond Lane so I miss (another swizz) the great excitement at home. The Queen is to drive along the Queens Road past our house on the way back from the Derby at Epsom. The others start waiting on the pavement at 4.00. At 4.45 Sir Winston Churchill goes by. At 5.00 two Royal cars pass with the Queen and the Duke in the first and the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret in the second. In the evening Mummy and Daddy take me and Isabel and Michael (two of the neighbours children) to Wokingham for an ox-roasting. We wait at the Wheatsheaf, Virginia Water for our Uncle Aubrey for quarter of an hour but as he hasn’t arrived we take a stroll to the waterfall. He still doesn’t arrive so we drive on, only to find the ox-roasting was last night. We have supper in a pleasant little cafe and drive home.”