QUEEN’S PAGEANT AT CORONATION

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20669, 6 March 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

QUEEN’S PAGEANT AT CORONATION

A PICTURESQUE CEREMONY The presence of Queen Elizabeth will enhance the pageantry at Westminster Abbey to a degree that few Imagine. Her Majesty, in fact, will have a Coronation pageant all to herself, says a London letter. Four duchesses, six daughters of earls, and 11 other ladies of aristocratic birth will provide the setting in which she will move as the centre figure as First Lady of the Land. No picture like it will have been seen in England for 26 years. First of her attendants will be the Mistress of the Robes, usually a duchess. It is likely that the Queen will choose the Duchess of Buccleuch (sister-in-law of the Duchess of Gloucester), for this most responsible position. Then will come the six earls' daughters to carry the Queen’s train; Although none of them has yet been chosen, it is likely that they will be friends of the Queen, and therefore young. After them will come two Ladies of the Bedchamber-ta-Waiting, then six Maids of Honour, then two Women of the Bedchamber. All these ladies will drive in coaches to the Abbey, with a resplendent escort of Life Guards. They will form part of the Queen’s procession, and will be in their places before the arrival of the King, who, of course, will be crowned first. When the bells have rung out, the salutes have been fired, and His Majesty, duly annotated and consecrated, is seated on his Throne, the great moment of Queen Elizabeth’s life will strike. Four duchesses will hold a cloth-of-gold canopy over her as she kneels at the altar. The Archbishop of Canterbury will annoint her. Her crown, with the glittering Koh-i-noor and the lesser stars of Africa, will then be placed on her head. Peeresses tak. ing the signal will put on their coioi ets. Afterward, the Queen’s ring wui be placed on the fourth finger of her right hand, and her sceptre oi gold »mi precious stones, with a mound and cross at the top Issuing from a Oenr de-lys, wll! be put Into her right band. into the left will t- given the ivvry rod with white enamelled dove at the bead. The Queen will pass from the altar to l.er torone. beside the King’s, but on a dais t. _> steps lowei.