Saturday Snapshot

Published on by Margaret

This year it’s the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. She acceded to the throne in February 1952 and was crowned on 2 June 1953. There are many celebrations around the UK this weekend celebrating her 60 year reign, which got me thinking about celebrations in the past.

I remember the Coronation. We didn’t have a television but my parents had friends who did and we all gathered in front of their tiny TV and watched the ceremony in grainy black and white. I was at primary school and we were all given a Coronation Mug (I have no idea what happened to it!) and drew pictures of the Queen and the Coronation Carriage. I made a scapbook cutting out newspaper and magazine photos.

My photos today are of a procession around the village where I lived to celebrate the Coronation, waving Union Flags.

In the photo above I’m in the middle at the front, the one with dark hair and a white floppy bow in my hair, behind the girl with short brown hair and next to my friends who lived in the same road as me.In this photo I’m near the back on the right of the procession just behind a bigger girl. The man on the extreme right of the photo in the mac, with a cigarette in his mouth (!) is my dad, just stepping into the road.

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

19 thoughts on “Saturday Snapshot”

  2. Those shots definitely take me back…I remember watching the Coronation on TV in a school mate’s home…there were only two students with TVs back then. Imagine that? When I tell my grandkids, they look at me as if I’m speaking a foreign language.

    The clothes on the students in your photo are much like how we all looked back then….thanks for sharing.

    Here’s MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT POST

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  6. I’m happy to say I wasn’t born yet. I may have been a twinkle in my dad’s eye. But your are so adorable in these, what memorabilia. Your commemorative mug would probably sell for a small fortune today. Send us photos of what’s happening in your area for the celebration, we’d love to see it, I bet no kids will be parading though. Happy Weekend.

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  9. These are fabulous photos! I love being able to look back at something like this and hear the personal stories & memories!

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  10. What a neat reminder for you of that special time … I remember seeing pictures of one of Elizabeth II’s first formal portraits and thinking what a beautiful young woman! It’s a portrait of her in a stunning gown with a huge circular skirt – just beautiful!

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  15. It’s so nice that you have these photos and that people in all of England had their own way of celebrating the queen’s coronation. I remember watching the coverage on television at a friend’s home. Like Laurel-Rain Snow, we didn’t yet have a TV; few did in central Illinois where I grew up. Goodness, that makes me feel old! :)

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  16. What wonderful keepsakes, these photos. I was born and raised in the then British colony of Hong Kong, later moved here to Canada with my family while I was a teenager. So I remember well the British colonial days during the 60’s. I wasn’t around during her Coronation. Films in recent years like The King’s Speech and Downton Abbey have piqued my interest in the history of England during the turn of the 20th C. Now in Canada, we do have some Diamond Jubilee celebrations, but of course, all eyes are on England now… all the way to the Olympics.

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  18. How very wonderful! My Dad wasn’t alive for the Coronation, and my Mum was only a few months old (and all my grandparents are dead) so I have nobody to tell me stories about the day itself.

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  19. I’ve been away so I missed all the jubilee celebrations. Your photos are lovely and it is making me wish I’d actually stayed in the country so I could share photos like this in years to come. What lovely memories!

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