Coronation Days

My mother-in-law penned the tale of how her "pen pal," later to be her husband Alfred, finally managed to come to England in the summer of 1953. His visit happily coincided with the coronation. As she tells it:

He arrived just before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and I wanted to look at it on the TV. My mother said, "you cannot do that, Thelma, you ought to go to London with him!" So on the evening of the day before the coronation took place, we travelled with my cousin Terry to Regent Street in London. We sat on the pavement on a blanket in about the third row back from the kerb at 11:00 pm at night.  At 7:00 am the next morning, police on horseback came round and we were told we must all stand up. 

It wasn’t until 5 pm in the afternoon that the Queen and Philipp went past us in the Golden coach. It was raining slightly and the coaches with Kings and Queens from other countries had them closed up so that we only saw them through the windows. In the procession, only one Queen didn’t mind the rain: the Queen of Tonga, a smiling stout lady, was in her open coach. 

When the procession had passed by, we returned back to Walthamstow and I said, "I would not have missed it for the world, it was quite a sensation."

Queen Salote of Tonga famously delighted the crowds
in the coronation procession for Elizabeth II