By Staff Writers
First published in The Age on June 3, 1953
QUEEN ELIZABETH CROWNED: EMPIRE REJOICES
World Enthralled By Coronation
London , June 2 - Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey at 12.32 (British Standard Time) today.
Queen Elizabeth with Prince Charles and Princess Anne on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the coronation.
At the moment of the crowning, the crowd outside the Abbey rose in a great body. Hats came off, heads were bowed. Then down came the rain – a heavy, lashing squall. Umbrellas went up and people pulled coats around their necks and inched closer together. A few seconds passed. People resumed their seats.
Queen Elizabeth, radiant and smiling, rode in her golden coach of State, through masses of cheering people.
She continually smiled and bowed. Beside her, the Duke, in the uniform of Admiral of the Fleet, raised his hand repeatedly in salute.
When the Royal party returned to Buckingham Palace an enormous crowd gathered outside the gates and cheered wildly as the Queen appeared and waved.
The Royal procession from the Palace to the Abbey during the morning was a triumphal progress.
Spurred cavalrymen with plumed helmets, foot soldiers with towering bearskin hats and military bands preceded the Queen’s carriage.
The skies were grey but everywhere along her way there was color – the scarlet and brass of her soldiers lining the route, the colored bunting against the grey of London’s old buildings, the fluttering of countless thousands of tiny flags, and always as the great State coach moved forward a tumultuous roar of cheers.
As the gilded carriage approached Trafalgar Square, the sun gleamed through slightly.
The Queen’s Coronation dress, white satin embroidered with precious stones, was concealed by a crimson robe.
Eight greys pulled the massive coach, built for King George III nearly 200 years ago, and weighing four tons.
A close-up of the newly-crowned Queen, wearing the Imperial State Crown during her processional drive after her Coronation.Credit: Fox Photos
The Queen and the Duke were clearly visible through the broad windows, but sometimes she leaned forward as if the give the watchers a better view.
When the procession moved slowly along the Thames Embankment 30,000 school children in special stands raised a cheer. The Queen, who only a few moment before had said goodbye to her own children, leaned forward to smile and wave.
One little group of blind children cheered, too, and waved their flags as teachers described the unfolding procession.
As the Queen’s procession turned away from the river toward the Abbey past the great clock tower of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament a peal of greeting bells rang out from the nearby Saint Margaret’s Church.
The great tide of color flowed forward accompanied by surging waves of cheers. It wound through the crimson-tinted grandstands until the coach reached the glazed front of the annexe built to receive the Queen and her attendants.
The Queen remained a clam figure throughout, unperturbed even when the jolt of the halting coach disturbed her diadem. She smilingly straightened it.
Advance Guard Arrives
Four hundred ushers dressed in scarlet, green, and blue velvet were the first to arrive at Westminster Abbey for the Coronation service today. They were the Gold Staff officers.
Each carried a short can tipped with gold and bearing the Royal Cypher. They were the advance guard of the vast Abbey assemblage.
Peers soon after dawn gathered in the Abbey annexe to change into gold, velvet and ermine robes. They were followed by pages who carry the peer’s coronets. Peeresses already gowned were in their Abbey places early. Other Abbey ticket holders, including the Commonwealth visitors were seat holders.
Meanwhile, early train and bus services carried thousands more people toward the processional route.
Many travelers carried rugs, umbrellas, cushions and luncheon cases. At 7:30 a.m. London transport estimated they were bringing in spectators at the rate of 4000 a minute.
Little standing room was left on the route by 8 a.m. The pressure of the crowds in some sections smashed shop windows. There were many ambulance calls to attend women and children who had fainted.
The thickest crowds were outside Buckingham Palace. Long before the Queen left the Palace in her golden carriage more than a million people lined the flag-draped route.
Watchers at the Palace gates cheered when Prince Charles peeked from an upper window to see the assembly. Then a nurse held up Princess Anne beside him. They were there only a moment.
The two Palace nurses, Miss Helen Lightbody and Miss Mabel Anderson, had a difficult task trying to keep Prince Charles and Princess Anne to normal routine. Prince Charles knew that he was to see his mother crowned.
Dressed in a simple white silk suit, he went to the Abbey by a secret route. Princess Anne was not taken to the Abbey.
Prince Charles was given a seat in the Royal Gallery overlooking the ceremony, beside his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
As the crown was placed on his mother’s head he leaned forward and gazed intently at the ceremony.
As the Queen sat with the Crown gleaming high on her head, Prince Charles gazed about the Abbey, playing with his fingers.
All seating space in the Abbey was filled by 9 a.m. Peers, commoners and foreign representatives eagerly awaited the arrival of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family.
Comparatively few of the Abbey spectators, particularly those in the high galleries, could see the golden carpeted theatre before the altar where the actual crowning was to take place.