QUEEN ELIZABETH CROWNED IN ABBEY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27056, 3 June 1953, Page 9

QUEEN ELIZABETH CROWNED IN ABBEY

HISTORIC DAY IN LONDON

Solemnity And Beauty Of Service * A (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) '(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 2. Queen Elizabeth II was crowned today in Westminster Abbey, where English kings and queens before her have been crowned for the last 900 years. The ceremony in the Abbey was the religious expression of a Royal day, a memorable day of prayer, of procession, of gaiety, of colourful pageantry and of festival. Tremendous crowds lined London streets to see first the Queen’s procession to the Abbey, and then the triumphal and longer procession back to Buckingham Palace. In some parts of the procession route the cheering, orderly crowds were packed so tightly that the pressure cracked shop windows.

Not only in London, but all over the world millions on millions followed the Abbey, service and the procession by listening to the broadcasts. In Britain and Europe many thousands saw the pageantry on a television screen. The supreme moment of an unforgettable day was when the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Geoffrey Fisher) placed the crown of St. Edward on the young Queen’s head. Trumpets sounded a fanfare and guns throughout Britain thundered a salute. .

It was a day of colour and excitement such as London had not known for years. There were unprecedented scenes of gaiety in the tightly-jammed and brightly-bannered streets.