The start of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations coincide with a significant anniversary for the monarch – her Coronation Day.
Sixty nine years ago, Elizabeth II was crowned in religious ceremony staged on 2 June 1953 in the historic surrounds of Westminster Abbey and celebrated with street parties across the country.
The Queen is now the nation’s longest reigning monarch and the only one in British history to mark a platinum jubilee.
In 1953, She was just 27 years old and 16 months into her role as sovereign when the coronation took place, serving as a morale boost for a nation starved of pageantry following the Second World War.
The day of the coronation saw the nation host celebrations despite the hardship of post-war rationing, and even the atrocious, unseasonal weather could not dampen the festivities.
People began to bed down in the streets of London two days before the big event.
Despite the pouring rain and driving wind, the evening before, half a million people were already lining the procession route.
The coronation was shared with a wider audience through the relatively new medium of television.
Despite initial reservations, the Queen eventually agreed to allow TV cameras to be present inside the Abbey to capture the historic event.
An estimated 27 million people in Britain alone watched the coronation live on their, or their neighbours’, black and white televisions.
The uncrowned Queen Elizabeth II – she actually wore the George IV Diadem on her journey there – set out from Buckingham Palace in the Gold State Coach.
Years later in a BBC documentary about the day, the Queen recalled how the journey had been “horrible”.
“It’s only sprung on leather,” she said of the coach, adding: “Not very comfortable.”
The Gold State Coach will play a starring role in the Jubilee Pageant on Sunday, travelling down The Mall, with footage of the Queen using it on her Coronation showing at its windows, giving the impression of the young monarch riding in the carriage.
The Queen also spoke many years later about how she had a problem getting started in her lengthy coronation robe.
“I remember one moment when I was going against the pile of the carpet and I couldn’t move at all,” she remarked.
Her coronation dress, by couturier Norman Hartnell, was a white satin gown, 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 UK and countries of the Commonwealth.
The three-hour service took place in front of a congregation of more than 8,000 people.
The Queen took the coronation oath, was anointed and received the regalia including the orb, coronation ring, the glove and the sceptre, before being crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown.
The crown, which dates from 1661, weighs 4lbs and 12oz and is made from solid gold.
The Duke of Edinburgh swore to be his wife’s “liege man of life and limb” and was the first layman to pay tender homage to the newly crowned monarch.
Prince Charles, looking rather bored, watched in the Abbey seated between his widowed grandmother, the Queen Mother, and his aunt, Princess Margaret, but two-year-old Princess Anne was considered too young to attend.
The two-hour procession – mirrored in the carnival Jubilee Pageant procession route this weekend – back to Buckingham Palace was designed so as many people as possible could see the monarch.
The Queen changed into a robe of purple velvet and put on the lighter Imperial State Crown before she left the Abbey.
She appeared on the balcony with Philip and other members of the royal family including Charles and Anne to wave at the crowds.
In her broadcast address to the nation the same evening, the young Queen thanked the public for their support.
“Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust,” she said.
