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= Coronation of Elizabeth II =
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Introduction
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The coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the
other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster
Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the
death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed
queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The
coronation was held more than one year later because of the tradition
of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch
dies. It also gave the planning committees adequate time to make
preparations for the ceremony. During the service, Elizabeth took an
oath, was anointed with holy oil, was invested with robes and regalia,
and was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Celebrations took place across the Commonwealth realms and a
commemorative medal was issued. It was the first British coronation to
be fully televised; television cameras were not allowed inside the
abbey during her parents' coronation in 1937. Elizabeth's was the
fourth and final British coronation of the 20th century. It was
estimated to have cost £1.57 million (c. £53,571,428 in 2023).
Preparations
======================================================================
The one-day ceremony took 14 months of preparation: the first meeting
of the Coronation Commission was in April 1952, under the chairmanship
of the Queen's husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Other committees
were also formed, such as the Coronation Joint Committee and the
Coronation Executive Committee, both chaired by the Duke of Norfolk
who, by convention as earl marshal, had overall responsibility for the
event. Many physical preparations and decorations along the route were
the responsibility of David Eccles, Minister of Works. Eccles
described his role and that of the Earl Marshal: "The Earl Marshal is
the producer - I am the stage manager..." Architect Hugh Casson
designed street decorations for Westminster, and Eric Bedford designed
the Coronation Arches erected over The Mall.
The committees involved high commissioners from other Commonwealth
realms, reflecting the international nature of the coronation;
however, officials from other Commonwealth realms declined invitations
to participate in the event because the governments of those countries
considered the ceremony to be a religious rite unique to Britain. As
Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent said at the time: "In my
view the Coronation is the official enthronement of the Sovereign as
Sovereign of the UK. We are happy to attend and witness the Coronation
of the Sovereign of the UK but we are not direct participants in that
function." The Coronation Commission announced in June 1952 that the
coronation would take place on 2 June 1953.
Invitations for the coronation were designed by the illustrator Joan
Hassall; she had to use scraperboard to produce the final design as
there was not enough time to produce a wood engraving for such a large
and complex design. She also designed the personal invitation that
Prince Charles received to the coronation.
Norman Hartnell was commissioned by the Queen to design the outfits
for all members of the royal family, including Elizabeth's coronation
gown. His design for the gown evolved through nine proposals, and the
final version resulted from his own research and numerous meetings
with the Queen: a white silk dress embroidered with floral emblems of
the countries of the Commonwealth at the time: the Tudor rose of
England, Scottish thistle, Welsh leek, shamrock for Northern Ireland,
wattle of Australia, maple leaf of Canada, the New Zealand silver
fern, South Africa's protea, two lotus flowers for India and Ceylon,
and Pakistan's wheat, cotton and jute. Roger Vivier created a pair of
gold shoes for the occasion. The sandals featured jewel-encrusted
heels and decorative motif on the upper sides, which was meant to
resemble "the fleurs-de-lis pattern on the St Edward's Crown and the
Imperial State Crown". Elizabeth chose to wear the Coronation necklace
for the event. The piece was commissioned by Queen Victoria and worn
by Queens Alexandra, Mary, and Elizabeth at their respective
coronations. She paired it with the Coronation earrings.
Elizabeth rehearsed for the occasion with her maids of honour. A sheet
was used in place of the velvet train, and a formation of chairs stood
in for the carriage. She also wore the Imperial State Crown while
going about her daily business - at her desk, during tea, and while
reading a newspaper - so that she could become accustomed to its feel
and weight. Elizabeth took part in two full rehearsals at Westminster
Abbey, on 22 and 29 May, though some sources claim that she attended
one or "several" rehearsals. The Duchess of Norfolk usually stood in
for the Queen at rehearsals. Westminster Abbey was closed for five
months in preparation for the coronation.
Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary had died on 24 March 1953, having
stated in her will that her death should not affect the planning of
the coronation, and the event went ahead as scheduled. It was
estimated to cost £1.57 million (c£. 1570000 in ), which included
stands along the procession route to accommodate 96,000 people,
lavatories, street decorations, outfits, car hire, repairs to the
state coach, and alterations to the Queen's regalia.
Event
======================================================================
The coronation ceremony of Elizabeth II followed a pattern similar to
the coronations of the kings and queens before her, being held in
Westminster Abbey, and involving the peerage and clergy. However, for
the new queen, several parts of the ceremony were markedly different.
Television
============
Twenty-seven million people across Britain watched the event live on
the BBC Television Service, many having purchased or rented television
sets specifically for that purpose. The number of license holders
doubled from approximately one and a half million to three million.
The coronation was the first to be televised in full; the BBC's
cameras had not been allowed inside Westminster Abbey for Queen
Elizabeth II's parents' coronation in 1937 and had covered only the
procession outside. There had been considerable debate within the
British Cabinet on the subject, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill
against the idea; Elizabeth refused his advice on this matter and
insisted the event take place before television cameras, as well as
those filming with experimental 3D technology. An experiment in colour
television, separate from the BBC's black and white television
broadcast, was transmitted to children at the Great Ormond Street
Hospital where an average of 17 people watched each small screen.
In Europe, thanks to new relay links, this was the first live
broadcast of an event taking place in the United Kingdom. The
coronation was broadcast in France, Belgium, West Germany, Denmark,
and the Netherlands, marking the birth of Eurovision.
To make sure Canadians could see it on the same day, Operation Pony
Express was executed, seeing RAF Canberras fly BBC film recordings of
the ceremony across the Atlantic Ocean to be broadcast by the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the first non-stop flights between the
United Kingdom and the Canadian mainland. At Goose Bay, Labrador, the
first batch of film was transferred to a Royal Canadian Air Force
CF-100 jet fighter for the further trip to Montreal. In all, three
such flights were made as the coronation proceeded, with the first and
second Canberras taking the second and third batches of film,
respectively, to Montreal. The following day, a film was flown west to
Vancouver, where the CBC Television affiliate had yet to sign on. The
film was escorted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the Peace
Arch Border Crossing, after which it was escorted by the Washington
State Patrol to Bellingham, where it was shown as the inaugural
broadcast of KVOS-TV, a new station whose signal reached into the
Lower Mainland of British Columbia, allowing viewers there to see the
coronation as well, though on a one-day delay.
US networks NBC and CBS made similar arrangements to have films flown
in relays back to the United States for same-day broadcast, but they
used slower propeller-driven aircraft. NBC had originally planned to
carry the event live via skywave direct from the BBC. However, the
station was unable to establish a broadcast-quality video link on
coronation day, due to poor atmospheric conditions. The struggling ABC
network arranged to re-transmit the CBC broadcast, taking the
on-the-air signal from the CBC's Toronto station and feeding the
network from WBEN-TV, Buffalo's lone television station at the time;
as a result, ABC beat the other two networks to air by more than 90
minutes and at considerably lower cost. However, the Canadian
broadcast was the first in North America, viewers in eastern Canada
watching the ceremony a half hour before Americans did.
Although it did not as yet have a full-time television service, film
was also dispatched to Australia aboard a Qantas airliner, which
arrived in Sydney in a record time of 53 hours 28 minutes. The
worldwide television audience for the coronation was estimated to be
277 million. Additionally, 11 million in the UK listened to the
broadcast on radio.
Procession
============
Along a route lined with sailors, soldiers, and airmen and women from
across the British Empire and Commonwealth, guests and officials
passed in a procession before about three million spectators that were
gathered on the streets of London, some having camped overnight in
their spot to ensure a view of the monarch, and others having access
to specially built stands and scaffolding along the route. For those
not present, more than 200 microphones were stationed along the path
and in Westminster Abbey, with 750 commentators broadcasting in 39
languages.
The procession included foreign royalty and heads of state riding to
Westminster Abbey in various carriages, so many that volunteers
ranging from wealthy businessmen to rural landowners were required to
supplement the insufficient ranks of regular footmen. The first royal
coach left Buckingham Palace and moved down the Mall, which was filled
with flag-waving and cheering crowds. It was followed by the Irish
State Coach carrying Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who wore the
circlet of her crown bearing the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Queen Elizabeth
II proceeded through London from Buckingham Palace, through Trafalgar
Square, and towards the abbey in the Gold State Coach drawn by eight
grey geldings. The Royal Mews staff placed a hot water bottle under
the coach's seat to keep the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh warm.
Attached to the shoulders of her dress, the Queen wore the Robe of
State, a 6 yd long, hand woven silk velvet cloak lined with Canadian
ermine that required the assistance of her maids of honour— Lady Jane
Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Lady Anne Coke, Lady Moyra Hamilton, Lady Mary
Baillie-Hamilton, Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, Lady
Rosemary Spencer-Churchill and the Duchess of Devonshire—to carry.
The return procession followed a route that was 4.5 mi in length,
passing along Whitehall, across Trafalgar Square, along Pall Mall and
Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner, via Marble Arch and Oxford Circus,
down Regent Street and Haymarket, and finally along the Mall to
Buckingham Palace. 29,000 service personnel from Britain and across
the Commonwealth marched in a procession that was 2 mi long and took
45 minutes to pass any given point. A further 15,800 lined the route.
The parade was led by Colonel Burrows of the War Office staff and four
regimental bands. Then came the colonial contingents, then troops from
the Commonwealth realms, followed by the Royal Air Force, the British
Army, the Royal Navy, and finally the Household Brigade. Behind the
marching troops was a carriage procession led by the rulers of the
British protectorates, including Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga, the
Commonwealth prime ministers, the princes and princesses of the blood
royal, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Preceded by the heads of
the British Armed Forces on horseback, the Gold State Coach was
escorted by the Yeomen of the Guard and the Household Cavalry and was
followed by the Queen's aides-de-camp. So many carriages were required
that some had to be borrowed from Elstree Studios.
After the end of the procession, the royal family appeared on the
balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flypast. The flypast had been
altered on the day due to the bad weather, but otherwise took place as
planned. 168 jet fighters flew overhead in three divisions thirty
seconds apart, at an altitude of 1,500 feet.
Guests
========
After being closed since the Queen's accession for coronation
preparations, Westminster Abbey was opened at 6 am on Coronation Day
to the approximately 8,000 guests invited from across the Commonwealth
of Nations; more prominent individuals, such as members of the Queen's
family and foreign royalty, the peers of the United Kingdom, heads of
state, members of Parliament from the Queen's various legislatures,
and the like, arrived after 8:30 a.m. Queen Sālote of Tonga was a
guest, and was noted for her cheery demeanour while riding in an open
carriage through London in the rain. General George Marshall, the
former United States secretary of state who implemented the Marshall
Plan, was appointed chairman of the US delegation to the coronation
and attended the ceremony along with his wife, Katherine.
Among other dignitaries who attended the event were Sir Winston
Churchill; the prime ministers of Burma, India and Pakistan, U Nu,
Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad Ali Bogra; and Col Anastasio Somoza
Debayle of Nicaragua. 129 nations and territories were represented by
their dignitaries at the service. Foreign and Commonwealth
representatives were also invited to two banquets hosted by the Queen
at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen later revealed that some peers had hidden sandwiches
underneath their coronets to fuel them through the three-hour
ceremony. Guests seated on stools were able to purchase their stools
following the ceremony, with the profits going towards the cost of the
coronation.
Ceremony
==========
Preceding the Queen into Westminster Abbey was the coronation regalia,
including the Second Sword, carried by the Earl of Home, Curtana
carried by the Duke of Northumberland, the Third Sword carried by the
Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury and St Edward's Crown, carried into
the abbey by the Lord High Steward of England, the Lord Cunningham of
Hyndhope flanked by two other peers. The archbishops and bishops
assistant (Durham and Bath and Wells) of the Church of England, in
their copes and mitres, waited outside the Great West Door for Queen
Elizabeth II's arrival. When she arrived at about 11:00 am, she found
that the friction between her robes and the carpet caused her
difficulty moving forward, and she said to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, "Get me started!" Once going, the
procession, which included the various high commissioners of the
Commonwealth carrying banners bearing the shields of the coats of arms
of their respective nations, moved inside the abbey, up the central
aisle and through the choir to the stage, as the choirs sang 'I was
glad', an imperial setting of Psalm 122, vv. 1-3, 6, and 7 by Sir
Hubert Parry. As Elizabeth prayed at and then seated herself on the
Chair of Estate to the south of the altar, the bishops carried in the
religious paraphernalia—the Bible, paten and chalice—and the peers
holding the coronation regalia handed them over to the archbishop of
Canterbury, who, in turn, passed them to the dean of Westminster, Alan
Don, to be placed on the altar.
After she moved to stand before King Edward's Chair, Elizabeth turned,
following as Fisher, along with the Lord High Chancellor of Great
Britain, the Lord Simonds; the Lord Great Chamberlain of England, the
Marquess of Cholmondeley; the Lord High Constable of England, the
Viscount Alanbrooke; and the Earl Marshal of England, the Duke of
Norfolk; all led by Garter Principal King of Arms George Bellew. The
Archbishop of Canterbury asked the audience in each direction of the
compass separately: "Sirs, I here present unto you Queen Elizabeth,
your undoubted Queen: wherefore all you who are come this day to do
your homage and service, are you willing to do the same?" The crowd
would reply "God save Queen Elizabeth!" every time, to each of which
the Queen would curtsey in return.
Seated again on the Chair of Estate, Elizabeth then took the
coronation oath as administered by the archbishop of Canterbury. In
the lengthy oath, she swore to govern each of her countries according
to their respective laws and customs, to mete out law and justice with
mercy, to uphold Protestantism in the United Kingdom and protect the
Church of England and preserve its bishops and clergy. She proceeded
to the altar where she stated, "The things which I have here promised,
I will perform, and keep. So help me God", before kissing the Bible
and putting the royal sign-manual to the oath as the Bible was
returned to the dean of Westminster. From him the Moderator of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, James Pitt-Watson, took
the Bible and presented it to Elizabeth again, saying,
Elizabeth returned the book to Pitt-Watson, who placed it back with
the dean of Westminster.
The communion service was then conducted, involving prayers by both
the clergy and Elizabeth, Fisher asking, "O God... Grant unto this thy
servant Elizabeth, our Queen, the spirit of wisdom and government,
that being devoted unto thee with her whole heart, she may so wisely
govern, that in her time thy Church may be in safety, and Christian
devotion may continue in peace", before reading various excerpts from
the First Epistle of Peter, Psalms, and the Gospel of Matthew.
Elizabeth was then anointed as the choir sang 'Zadok the Priest'; the
Queen's jewellery and crimson cape were removed by the Earl of
Ancaster and the Mistress of the Robes, the Duchess of Devonshire and,
wearing only a simple, white linen dress also designed by Hartnell to
completely cover the coronation gown, she moved to be seated in King
Edward's Chair. There, Fisher, assisted by the Dean of Westminster,
made a cross on her forehead, hands and breast with holy oil made from
the same base as had been used in the coronation of her father. A gold
canopy borne aloft by four Knights of the Garter on poles shielded
her, and at her request, the anointing ceremony was not televised.
From the altar, the dean passed to the Lord Great Chamberlain the
spurs, which were presented to Elizabeth and then placed back on the
altar. The Sword of State was then handed to Elizabeth, who, after a
prayer was uttered by Fisher, placed it herself on the altar, and the
peer who had been previously holding it took it back again after
paying a sum of 100 shillings. Elizabeth was then invested with the
Armills (bracelets), Stole Royal, Robe Royal and the Sovereign's Orb,
followed by the Sovereign's Ring, the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross
and the Sovereign's Sceptre with Dove. With the first two items on and
in her right hand and the latter in her left, Queen Elizabeth II was
crowned by the archbishop of Canterbury, with the crowd chanting "God
save the Queen!" three times at the exact moment St Edward's Crown
touched the monarch's head. The princes and peers gathered then put on
their coronets and a 21-gun salute was fired from the Tower of London.
With the benediction read, Elizabeth moved to the throne and the
archbishop of Canterbury and all the bishops offered to her their
fealty, after which, while the choir sang, the peers of the United
Kingdom—led by the royal peers: Elizabeth's husband; her uncle the
Duke of Gloucester; and her cousin the Duke of Kent—each proceeded, in
order of precedence, to pay their personal homage and allegiance.
After the royal peers, the 5 most senior peers, one for each rank,
offered their fealty as representatives of the peerage of the United
Kingdom: Norfolk for Dukes and Duchesses, the Marquess Huntly for
Marquesses and Marchionesses, the Earl of Shrewsbury for Earls and
Countesses, the Viscount of Arbuthnott for Viscounts and Viscountesses
and the Lord Mowbray for Barons and Baronesses.
When the last Baron had completed this task, the assembly shouted "God
save Queen Elizabeth. Long live Queen Elizabeth. May the Queen live
for ever!" Having removed all her royal regalia, Elizabeth knelt and
took the communion, including a general confession and absolution,
and, along with the congregation, recited the Lord's Prayer.
Now wearing the Imperial State Crown and holding the Sceptre with the
Cross and the Orb, and as the gathered guests sang "God Save the
Queen", Elizabeth left Westminster Abbey through the nave and apse,
out the Great West Door.
Music
=======
Although many had assumed that the master of the queen's music, Sir
Arnold Bax, would be the director of music for the coronation, it was
decided instead to appoint the organist and master of the choristers
at the abbey, William McKie, who had been in charge of music at the
royal wedding in 1947. McKie convened an advisory committee with Sir
Arnold Bax and Sir Ernest Bullock, who had directed the music for the
previous coronation.
When it came to choosing the music, tradition required that Handel's
'Zadok the Priest' and Parry's 'I was glad' were included amongst the
anthems. Other choral works included were the anonymous 16th century
anthem "Rejoice in the Lord alway" and Samuel Sebastian Wesley's 'Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace'. Another tradition was that new works
be commissioned from the leading composers of the day: Ralph Vaughan
Williams composed a new motet 'O Taste and See', William Walton
composed a setting for the Te Deum, and the Canadian composer Healey
Willan wrote an anthem 'O Lord our Governor'. Four new orchestral
pieces were planned; Arthur Bliss composed 'Processional'; Walton,
'Orb and Sceptre'; and Arnold Bax, 'Coronation March'. Benjamin
Britten had agreed to compose a piece, but he caught influenza and
then had to deal with flooding at Aldeburgh, so nothing was
forthcoming. Edward Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D'
was played immediately before Bax's march at the end of the ceremony.
An innovation, at the suggestion of Vaughan Williams, was the
inclusion of a hymn in which the congregation could participate. This
proved controversial and was not included in the programme until
Elizabeth had been consulted and found to be in favour; Vaughan
Williams wrote an elaborate arrangement of the traditional metrical
psalm, the 'Old Hundredth', which included military trumpet fanfares
and was sung before the communion. Gordon Jacob wrote a choral
arrangement of 'God Save the Queen', also with trumpet fanfares.
The choir for the coronation was a combination of the choirs of
Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, the Chapel Royal, and Saint
George's Chapel, Windsor. In addition to those established choirs, the
Royal School of Church Music conducted auditions to find twenty boy
trebles from parish church choirs representing the various regions of
the United Kingdom. Along with twelve trebles chosen from various
British cathedral choirs, the selected boys spent the month beforehand
training at Addington Palace. The final complement of choristers
comprised 182 boy trebles, 37 male altos, 62 tenors and 67 basses. The
orchestra, of 60 players, was drawn from the leading members of
British symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles. Each of the 18
violinists, headed by Paul Beard, was the leader of a major orchestra
or chamber group. The conductor was Sir Adrian Boult, who had
conducted the orchestra at the previous coronation.
Celebrations, monuments, and media
======================================================================
In the evening on 2 June, the Queen made a live radio broadcast to
thank the public. All across the Queen's realms, the rest of the
Commonwealth, and in other parts of the world, coronation celebrations
were held. The British government announced an extra bank holiday that
fell on 3 June and moved the last bank holiday in May to 2 June to
allow for an extended time of celebrations. The Queen Elizabeth II
Coronation Medal was also presented to thousands of recipients
throughout the Queen's realms and in Canada, New Zealand, South
Africa, and the UK, commemorative coins were issued. Three million
bronze coronation medallions were ordered by the Canadian government,
struck by the Royal Canadian Mint and distributed to schoolchildren
across the country; the obverse showed Elizabeth's effigy and the
reverse the royal cypher above the word 'CANADA', all circumscribed by
'ELIZABETH II REGINA CORONATA MCMLIII'.
As at the coronation of George VI, acorns shed from oaks in Windsor
Great Park, near Windsor Castle, were shipped around the Commonwealth
and planted in parks, school grounds, cemeteries and private gardens
to grow into what are known as 'Royal Oaks' or 'Coronation Oaks'.
In London, the Queen hosted a coronation luncheon, for which the
recipe coronation chicken was devised, and a fireworks show was
mounted on Victoria Embankment. Further, street parties were mounted
around the United Kingdom. The Coronation Cup football tournament was
held at Hampden Park, Glasgow in May, and two weeks before the
coronation, the children's literary magazine 'Collins Magazine'
rebranded itself as 'The Young Elizabethan'. News that Edmund Hillary
and Tenzing Norgay had reached the summit of Mount Everest arrived in
Britain on Elizabeth's coronation day; the New Zealand, American, and
British media dubbed it "a coronation gift for the new Queen". In the
following month, a pageant took place over the River Thames as a
coronation tribute to the Queen.
Military tattoos, horse races, parades, and fireworks displays were
mounted in Canada. The country's Governor General, Vincent Massey,
proclaimed the day a national holiday and presided over celebrations
on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, where the Queen's coronation speech was
broadcast and her personal royal standard flown from the Peace Tower.
Later, a public concert was held on Parliament Hill and the Governor
General hosted a ball at Rideau Hall. In Newfoundland, 90,000 boxes of
sweets were given to children, some having theirs delivered by Royal
Canadian Air Force drops, and, in Quebec, 400,000 people turned out in
Montreal, some 100,000 at Jeanne-Mance Park alone. A multicultural
show was put on at Exhibition Place in Toronto, square dances and
exhibitions took place in the Prairie provinces, and, in Vancouver,
the Chinese community performed a public lion dance. On the Korean
Peninsula, Canadian soldiers serving in the Korean War acknowledged
the day by firing red, white, and blue coloured smoke shells at the
enemy and drank rum rations.
A documentary film of the coronation, 'A Queen Is Crowned', narrated
by Laurence Olivier, was one of the most popular films in British
cinemas that year. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best
Documentary Feature and was the first winner of the Golden Globe Award
for Best Documentary Film.
Coronation Review of the Fleet
================================
On 15 June 1953, the Queen attended a fleet review at Spithead, off
the coast at Portsmouth. Commanded by Admiral Sir George Creasy were
197 Royal Navy warships, together with 13 from the Commonwealth and 16
from foreign navies, as well as representative vessels from the
British Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets. There were more British and
Commonwealth naval ships present than at the 1937 coronation review,
though a third of them were frigates or smaller vessels. Major Royal
Navy units included Britain's last battleship, , and four fleet and
three light aircraft carriers. The Royal Australian Navy and the Royal
Canadian Navy also each included a light carrier in their contingents,
and .
Using the frigate as a royal yacht, the Queen and royal family
started to review the lines of anchored ships at 3:30 p.m., finally
anchoring at 5:10 p.m. This was followed by a fly-past of Fleet Air
Arm aircraft. Forty naval air squadrons participated, with 327
aircraft flying from four naval air stations; the formation was led by
Rear Admiral Walter Couchman flying a de Havilland Sea Vampire. After
the Queen transferred to 'Vanguard' for dinner, the day concluded with
the Illumination of the fleet and a fireworks display.
Honours of Scotland
=====================
During a week-long visit to Scotland, on 24 June 1953, the Queen
attended a national service of thanksgiving at St Giles' Cathedral,
Edinburgh, during which she was ceremonially presented with the
Honours of Scotland, the Scottish crown jewels. Following a carriage
procession through the city escorted by the Royal Company of Archers,
the service, led by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the
Church of Scotland, James Pitt-Watson, was attended by a congregation
of 1,700 drawn from all sections of Scottish society. The high point
of the event was the presentation of the Honours, which the Queen
received from the Dean of the Thistle, Charles Warr, and then passed
the Crown of Scotland to the Duke of Hamilton, the Sword of State to
the Earl of Home, and the Sceptre to the Earl of Crawford and
Balcarres. It was the first time that this ceremony had been enacted
since 1822 during the visit of King George IV.
The Queen was dressed in "day clothes" complete with a handbag, rather
than in ceremonial robes, which was taken as a slight to Scotland's
dignity by the Scottish press. The decision not to dress formally was
made by the Private Secretary to the Sovereign, Sir Alan Lascelles,
and Sir Austin Strutt, a senior civil servant at the Home Office, to
avoid the service being interpreted as a coronation (the Kingdom of
Scotland having ceased to exist upon the Acts of Union 1707). In the
official painting of the ceremony by Stanley Cursiter, the offending
handbag was tactfully omitted.
Coronation Review of the RAF
==============================
On 15 July 1953, the Queen attended a review of the Royal Air Force at
RAF Odiham in Hampshire. The first part of the review was a march past
by contingents representing the various commands of the RAF, with
Bomber Command leading. This was followed by four de Havilland Venoms
of the Central Fighter Establishment making the Royal Cypher in
skywriting. After lunch, the Queen in an open car toured the lines of
some 300 aircraft that were arranged in a static display. She returned
to the central dias for the flypast of 640 British and Commonwealth
aircraft, of which 440 were jet-powered. The flypast was led by a
Bristol Sycamore helicopter which was towing a large RAF Ensign, while
the final aircraft was a prototype Supermarine Swift flown by test
pilot Mike Lithgow. Finally, the skywriting Venoms spelled out the
word "vivat".
See also
======================================================================
* List of participants in the coronation procession of Elizabeth II
* 1953 Coronation Honours
* The Queen's Beasts, heraldic statues placed outside Westminster
Abbey representing Elizabeth's genealogy
* Canadian Coronation Contingent
* All the Elizabeths
* Coronation of Charles III and Camilla
Further reading
======================================================================
* Clancy, Laura.
[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2019.1597710
"'Queen's Day - TV's Day': the British monarchy and the media
industries"], 'Contemporary British History', vol. 33, no. 3 (2019),
pp. 427-450.
* Feingold, Ruth P. "Every little girl can grow up to be queen: the
coronation and The Virgin in the Garden." 'Literature & History'
22.2 (2013): 73-90.
*
* Örnebring, Henrik. "Revisiting the Coronation: a Critical
Perspective on the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953."
'Nordicom Review' 25, no. 1-2
[http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/kapitel-pdf/157_175-196.pdf
online](2004)
* Shils, Edward, and Michael Young. "The meaning of the coronation."
'The Sociological Review' 1.2 (1953): 63-81.
*
* Weight, Richard. 'Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000'
(Pan Macmillan, 2013) pp 211-56.
External links
======================================================================
* [https://www.oremus.org/coronation/1953/ Order of Service of the
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II]
*
[https://www.westminster-abbey.org/media/5251/elizabeth-ii-coronation-1953-musicians.pdf
Music and musicians at the coronation]
*
[http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/society/the-monarchy/canadas-new-queen/coronation-of-queen-elizabeth-ii.html
Newsreel of the coronation]
*[http://ssa.nls.uk/search.cfm?search_term=coronation&search_fields=6&search_join_type=AND&search_fuzzy=yes&subject=&location=&personality=&genre=&series=&fiction=&colour=&sound=&year_from=1953&year_to=1953&decade=&videos_only=1&search_mode=Advanced&submit=Search+%3E%3E%3E
Videos of the celebrations]
*[http://www.nfb.ca/film/canada_at_coronation/ 'Canada at the
Coronation' (1953)]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9g6h1YpZBQ 'Coronation model aids
architects' (1952)]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5LL8xM85lA 'Elizabeth is Queen'
(1953)]
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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_Elizabeth_II