The Coronation – I Was There!
I WAS THERE!
As our village Jubilee Committee worked so hard putting together the programme of events for us, I felt I’d like to contribute towards the ‘50s exhibition by recording my memories of watching the Coronation procession in London when I was ten years of age.
We were living in Dinas Powis at that time, near the train station. I had an Aunty Connie with a good job in the offices of the GWR (Great Western Railway). She had been promoted from the Cardiff office to a higher paid job near Paddington Station, London. She was able to rent a first floor flat with a balcony in a Victorian building near the station, at a reduced rent because GWR owned many of the blocks. The back windows of her flat looked onto the main line.
She took my Welsh grandmother to live with her. My grandmother did all the cooking. She would hold up her walking stick to stop the traffic whenever she wanted to cross the road to the grocer’s shop; imagine that these days! Milk was delivered daily by a Welsh farmer who kept cows and had a dairy near Paddington; he was a Jones. My Nan would invite him in for tea and cake and they would enjoy a good chat in Welsh in the kitchen.
On the day before the Coronation, my mother, my best friend Edna, and I travelled by train to Paddington where we all squashed into the two-bedroom flat. A picnic was packed and the next day we all set off very early to walk to Hyde Park. It was still dark.
As we walked, more and more people joined us, plus many mounted police. I was fascinated by them having lights on the horses’ stirrups and on the policemen’s helmets. To me, the horses seemed enormous.
It was still just dawn when we arrived at my aunt’s chosen spot; there were already rows and rows of people in position. I think my aunt and my mother had little folding stools and we had blankets, as it was quite chilly. There were already soldiers in position lining the route. Everyone was very excited and happy. Toilet blocks had been set up and there was bunting everywhere.
As the time for the procession drew nearer, all the children were encouraged by the crowd to sit on the kerbside behind the soldiers. At one point, the soldiers were allowed to relax and eat the rations they had been issued. A couple of soldiers gave us their bars of chocolate. As time went on, we saw a few soldiers faint, as they had been standing to attention for many hours. They were whisked away very quickly on stretchers.
My mother and aunt were way back in the crowd; they passed us sandwiches and fruit across the happy people. We had to wait a very long time as we were positioned to see the procession once it was on its way back from the coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey. There were loudspeakers playing the whole time and relaying the service from the Abbey. Everyone was excited and expectant. It started to rain quite heavily but people had prepared, and we must have had waterproofs as I don’t remember being wet. We weren’t bored as there was so much to see and we had sweets and teddy bears. The crowd was very noisy.
It was raining very heavily by the time the actual procession began to arrive. We loved the colours of the uniforms and all the horses. I vividly remember the gold coach with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh passing us. The Queen was sitting up very straight, smiling and waving. They passed quite slowly, followed by a coach carrying the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Of the many carriages that followed, most with hoods up because it was raining heavily, the highlight for us was Queen Sālote of Tonga. She was standing up, waving and smiling at everyone. She was an enormous and very colourful lady. She just stood in the rain. The procession took a long time to pass. We then had to walk back to Paddington, weary and, probably, grumpy.
My grandmother watched the whole day on a little television set in the grocer’s shop. My father couldn’t be with us as there wasn’t enough room for him to stay in my aunt’s flat. I can only find one photo taken of the day; it’s taken on my aunt’s balcony, of me and my best friend Edna. My aunt and mother had been too far back in the crowd to take any photos of the procession. I had a mug from school and a miniature gold coach.
Sandra Jones