The coronation of Elizabeth II as queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. Elizabeth acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive councils shortly afterwards. The coronation was held more than one year later because of the tradition of allowing an appropriate length of time to pass after a monarch dies. It also gave the planning committees adequate time to make preparations for the ceremony. During the service, Elizabeth took an oath, was anointed with holy oil, was invested with robes and regalia, and was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
Celebrations took place across the Commonwealth realms and a commemorative medal was issued. It was the first British coronation to be fully televised; television cameras were not allowed inside the abbey during her parents' coronation in 1937. Elizabeth's was the fourth and final British coronation of the 20th century. It was estimated to have cost £1.57 million (c. £53,571,428 in 2023).
Preparations
The one-day ceremony took 14 months of preparation: the first meeting of the Coronation Commission was in April 1952, under the chairmanship of the Queen's husband, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Other committees were also formed, such as the Coronation Joint Committee and the Coronation Executive Committee, both chaired by the Duke of Norfolk who, by convention as earl marshal, had overall responsibility for the event. Philip chairing the Commission was a break with precedent. Many physical preparations and decorations along the route were the responsibility of David Eccles, Minister of Works. Eccles described his role and that of the Earl Marshal: "The Earl Marshal is the producer – I am the stage manager..." Architect Hugh Casson designed street decorations for Westminster, and Eric Bedford designed the Coronation Arches erected over The Mall.
The committees involved high commissioners from other Commonwealth realms, reflecting the international nature of the coronation; however, officials from other Commonwealth realms declined invitations to participate in the event because the governments of those countries considered the ceremony to be a religious rite unique to Britain. As Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent said at the time: "In my view the Coronation is the official enthronement of the Sovereign as Sovereign of the UK. We are happy to attend and witness the Coronation of the Sovereign of the UK but we are not direct participants in that function." The Coronation Commission announced in June 1952 that the coronation would take place on 2 June 1953.
Invitations for the coronation were designed by the illustrator Joan Hassall; she had to use scraperboard to produce the final design as there was not enough time to produce a wood engraving for such a large and complex design. She also designed the personal invitation that Prince Charles received to the coronation.
Norman Hartnell was commissioned by the Queen to design the outfits for all members of the royal family, including Elizabeth's coronation gown. His design for the gown evolved through nine proposals, and the final version resulted from his own research and numerous meetings with the Queen: a white silk dress embroidered with floral emblems of the countries of the Commonwealth at the time: the Tudor rose of England, Scottish thistle, Welsh leek, shamrock for Northern Ireland, wattle of Australia, maple leaf of Canada, the New Zealand silver fern, South Africa's protea, two lotus flowers for India and Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton and jute. Roger Vivier created a pair of gold shoes for the occasion. The sandals featured jewel-encrusted heels and decorative motif on the upper sides, which was meant to resemble "the fleurs-de-lis pattern on the St Edward's Crown and the Imperial State Crown". Elizabeth chose to wear the Coronation necklace for the event. The piece was commissioned by Queen Victoria and worn by Queens Alexandra, Mary, and Elizabeth at their respective coronations. She paired it with the Coronation earrings.
Elizabeth rehearsed for the occasion with her maids of honour. A sheet was used in place of the velvet train, and a formation of chairs stood in for the carriage. She also wore the Imperial State Crown while going about her daily business – at her desk, during tea, and while reading a newspaper – so that she could become accustomed to its feel and weight. Elizabeth took part in two full rehearsals at Westminster Abbey, on 22 and 29 May, though some sources claim that she attended one or "several" rehearsals. The Duchess of Norfolk usually stood in for the Queen at rehearsals. Westminster Abbey was closed for five months in preparation for the coronation.
Elizabeth's grandmother Queen Mary had died on 24 March 1953, having stated in her will that her death should not affect the planning of the coronation, and the event went ahead as scheduled. It was estimated to cost £1.57 million (c£. 52,900,000 in 2024), which included stands along the procession route to accommodate 96,000 people, lavatories, street decorations, outfits, car hire, repairs to the state coach, and alterations to the Queen's regalia.
Event
The coronation ceremony of Elizabeth II followed a pattern similar to the coronations of the kings and queens before her, being held in Westminster Abbey, and involving the peerage and clergy. However, for the new queen, several parts of the ceremony were markedly different.
Television
Twenty-seven million people across Britain watched the event live on the BBC Television Service, many having purchased or rented television sets specifically for that purpose. The number of licence holders doubled from approximately one and a half million to three million. The coronation was the first to be televised in full; the BBC's cameras had not been allowed inside Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II's parents' coronation in 1937 and had covered only the procession outside. There had been considerable debate within the British Cabinet on the subject, with Prime Minister Winston Churchill against the idea; Elizabeth refused his advice on this matter and insisted the event take place before television cameras, as well as those filming with experimental 3D technology. An experiment in colour television, separate from the BBC's black-and-white television broadcast, was transmitted to children at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, where an average of 17 people watched each small screen.
In Europe, thanks to new relay links, this was the first live broadcast of an event taking place in the United Kingdom. The coronation was broadcast in France, Belgium, West Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, marking the birth of Eurovision.
To make sure Canadians could see it on the same day, Operation Pony Express was executed, seeing RAF Canberras fly BBC film recordings of the ceremony across the Atlantic Ocean to be broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), the first non-stop flights between the United Kingdom and the Canadian mainland. At Goose Bay, Labrador, the first batch of film was transferred to a Royal Canadian Air Force CF-100 jet fighter for the further trip to Montreal. In all, three such flights were made as the coronation proceeded, with the first and second Canberras taking the second and third batches of film, respectively, to Montreal. The following day, a film was flown west to Vancouver, where the CBC Television affiliate had yet to sign on. The film was escorted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the Peace Arch Border Crossing, after which it was escorted by the Washington State Patrol to Bellingham, where it was shown as the inaugural broadcast of KVOS-TV, a new station whose signal reached into the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, allowing viewers there to see the coronation as well, though on a one-day delay.
US networks NBC and CBS made similar arrangements to have films flown in relays back to the United States for same-day broadcast, but they used slower propeller-driven aircraft. NBC had originally planned to carry the event live via skywave direct from the BBC. However, the station was unable to establish a broadcast-quality video link on coronation day, due to poor atmospheric conditions. The struggling ABC network arranged to re-transmit the CBC broadcast, taking the on-the-air signal from the CBC's Toronto station and feeding the network from WBEN-TV, Buffalo's lone television station at the time; as a result, ABC beat the other two networks to air and at considerably lower cost, followed by NBC which had made a last-minute deal with ABC. However, the Canadian broadcast was the first in North America, viewers in eastern Canada watching the ceremony a half hour before Americans did.
Although it did not as yet have a full-time television service, film was also dispatched to Australia aboard a Qantas airliner, which arrived in Sydney in a record time of 53 hours 28 minutes. The worldwide television audience for the coronation was estimated to be 277 million. Additionally, 11 million in the UK listened to the broadcast on radio.
Procession
Along a route lined with sailors, soldiers, and airmen and women from across the British Empire and Commonwealth, guests and officials passed in a procession before about three million spectators that were gathered on the streets of London, some having camped overnight in their spot to ensure a view of the monarch, and others having access to specially built stands and scaffolding along the route. For those not present, more than 200 microphones were stationed along the path and in Westminster Abbey, with 750 commentators broadcasting in 39 languages.
The procession included foreign royalty and heads of state riding to Westminster Abbey in various carriages, so many that volunteers ranging from wealthy businessmen to rural landowners were required to supplement the insufficient ranks of regular footmen. The first royal coach left Buckingham Palace and moved down the Mall, which was filled with flag-waving and cheering crowds. It was followed by the Irish State Coach carrying Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, who wore the circlet of her crown bearing the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Queen Elizabeth II proceeded through London from Buckingham Palace, through Trafalgar Square, and towards the abbey in the Gold State Coach drawn by eight grey geldings. The Royal Mews staff placed a hot water bottle under the coach's seat to keep the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh warm. Attached to the shoulders of her dress, the Queen wore the Robe of State, a 6-yard (5.5 m) long, hand woven silk velvet cloak lined with Canadian ermine that required the assistance of her maids of honour— Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Lady Anne Coke, Lady Moyra Hamilton, Lady Mary Baillie-Hamilton, Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby, Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill and the Duchess of Devonshire—to carry.
The return procession followed a route that was 5.1 miles (8.2 km) in length, passing along Whitehall, across Trafalgar Square, along Pall Mall and Piccadilly to Hyde Park Corner, via Marble Arch and Oxford Circus, down Regent Street and Haymarket, and finally along the Mall to Buckingham Palace. 29,000 service personnel from Britain and across the Commonwealth marched in a procession that was 2 miles (3.2 km) long and took 45 minutes to pass any given point. A further 15,800 lined the route. The parade was led by Colonel Burrows of the War Office staff and four regimental bands. Then came the colonial contingents, then troops from the Commonwealth realms, followed by the Royal Air Force, the British Army, the Royal Navy, and finally the Household Brigade. Behind the marching troops was a carriage procession led by the rulers of the British protectorates, including Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga, the Commonwealth prime ministers, the princes and princesses of the blood royal, and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Preceded by the heads of the British Armed Forces on horseback, the Gold State Coach was escorted by the Yeomen of the Guard and the Household Cavalry and was followed by the Queen's aides-de-camp. So many carriages were required that some had to be borrowed from Elstree Studios.
After the end of the procession, the royal family appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a flypast. The flypast had been altered on the day due to the bad weather, but otherwise took place as planned. 168 jet fighters flew overhead in three divisions thirty seconds apart, at an altitude of 1,500 feet.