A STEP BACK IN TIME: How the Inverness Courier reported on Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 Coronation
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
It was a decade of national renewal and optimism, but also of enduring hardship.
As coronation bunting lined almost every residential street in Inverness in 1953, meat and coal were still being rationed.
Housewives were carefully counting the pennies and only just getting used to the end of limits on sales of sugar, butter, cheese and eggs.
An average worker’s take home pay was £9 weekly and Scotland’s top footballers earned about the same.
Less than eight years after allied victory ended World War Two, Winston Churchill’s Britain was rebuilding at dizzying pace, but rubble and bomb craters were still seen in some inner city quarters.
Amid lavish preparations for Queen Elizabeth II’s crowning, life in the rural Highlands carried on much as it had for decades, but this was a country on the brink of seismic social, economic and cultural change.
There was a surge in sales and rentals of television sets as the coronation approached – doubling to 3.2 million across the UK between 1952 and 1954.
Some 56 per cent of adult Britons would watch at least some of it on the small screen. Poor reception was a blight on Highlanders’ enjoyment of the occasion, as we reported, but evening viewing proved acceptable and local picture houses screened highlights in colour in the days that followed.
Frankie Laine’s hits were all the rage for young and old, and it would be another two years until Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock sparked the early beginnings of teenage culture and buttoned-up fashion styles began to loosen.
Men, if not in work overalls, still commonly wore suits with waistcoats, ties, plain shirts and trilby hats. Young women’s ‘best dresses’ were full-skirted, with a stiffened petticoat underneath.
And it was as much a land of deference as deprivation.
Almost every Highland family attended church and a great many children within Inverness spent most of their Sundays studying the bible.
People remained by and large conservative in outlook and respectful towards those in power and institutions of state, albeit with some rumblings of discontent towards privilege and distant, rarely seen members of the monarchy.
The Queen Mother’s trip to the royal burgh of Inverness in August 1953 drew large cheering crowds, but then so too did the arrival of Billy Smart’s circus.
Britain had begun the 1950s bombed-out and financially beaten down, but wages were beginning to rise and the economy starting to boom towards the Swinging Sixties.
Like elsewhere in the UK, the mood in Inverness was buoyant and engaged as coronation day, June 2, beckoned.
For some that stemmed from patriotism, for others simply the anticipation of a day off work and a right good street party.
The coronation became the first televised and truly international media event, with 2000 journalists and 500 photographers from 92 nations arriving in London.
Among the reporters there to witness it all was a certain Jacqueline Bouvier, later the First Lady of the United States of America, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, then working for the Washington Times-Herald.
There was an equal thirst for news coverage and colour back in the Highland capital. Here is how the Inverness Courier reported it all:
On May 19, a full fortnight before the big day, the lead article reported:
The decoration of Inverness buildings and streets for the Coronation celebrations has begun to get under way, and streamers of bunting and flags of all kinds are daily increasing in number. Town employees took advantage of the holiday to start on the Town House, and with the aid of a fire brigade extended ladder soon had strings of bunting, etc., fixed up. In the bright sunshine and strong breeze the flags and decorations already flutter gaily and bravely, and the town is beginning to have a festive air. Many shop windows, too, are already suitably dressed for the great occasion, and photographs of the Queen, her consort and her children are the centre-pieces of many.
Vieing with man is nature, and the gardens everywhere are a brave sight, particularly those in the case of the Burgh Parks department. Cavell Gardens, which have for several weeks been arousing much admiration, are still a wonderful blaze of colour, whilst the beds at Ness Bank Church and in front of the Playhouse Cinema are also attractive. Those in front of the Town House have yet to be filled with their "Coronation" blooms, but Bellfield Park is, as ever, a delight to the eyes.
By May 29, three days before, the Courier was reporting:
The final spurt of decorating up Inverness's streets and buildings for the Coronation is almost over, and the main shopping centre is gay with flags, bunting and attractively-dressed windows, many of them filled with red, white and blue goods, or with pictures of the Queen and other members of the Royal Family. The Town House is lavishly bedecked with bunting,
banners and flags of the Commonwealth, St Andrew's Saltire flying from the flag-staff and Union Flags fluttering bravely from the four corners of the turret, whilst the Forbes Fountain has been "camouflaged" with red, white, and blue ensigns, and high above the Exchange are strings of bunting. Similar strings of bunting are strung across the main street and the lamp standards are adorned with decorative shields and flags, whilst specially striking efforts include large cut-out Highland soldiers surmounting a Union Street Store, with portraits of the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh above the doorway, and large Royal coats-of-arms (Scottish), above several premises. The Station, too, has gone festive, and nearly every shop and office in and around the town has made some effort to deck itself out for the occasion, whilst in the residential areas many houses already have flags, etc., up, and many cars and bicycles are flying Union Flags, St Andrew's Saltires and Scottish Lions.
However, not everyone was getting into the spirit of it all, as this letter to the editor in the same issue showed:
DECORATIONS STOLEN
TO THE EDITOR OF THE INVERNESS COURIER
Sir, I, like many other householders, took the trouble to purchase and erect flags at our house to show some little patriotism at this time, but, alas, in the early hours of this morning, at approximately 3.10 a.m, these decorations were stolen from the outside of the house. I also understand that the same thing happened at another house in Crown Drive just three or four houses from where I stay. This is disheartening, and the persons responsible for such actions should be dealt with.
-Yours etc.,
On the day of the Coronation, the Courier of June 2, 1953 broke from tradition by including large photographs of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and children Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
It also reflected nostalgically in preview coverage on past coronations:
Just as we are now, the edition included contrasts and comparisons of the times, described in the case of Queen Victoria’s coronation like this:
As comparisons and contrasts between Past and Present are of great interest, we publish below brief accounts from the "Courier" of previous Coronation celebrations in Inverness. From these readers will be able to realise the truth of the French saying - “Plus ca change, plus c'est la même chose" (roughly translated - The more things change, the more they are the same).
Queen Victoria
Highlanders are distinguished for their loyalty, and on Thursday last (June 28th, 1838) the Capital of the Highlands was not deficient in evincing its attachment to the Throne. All classes of the community seemed animated by one feeling, and to vie with each other in
demonstrations of respect and affection towards our gracious Sovereign. The day was remarkably fine-clear, warm and sunny-lighting up the noble panorama of hills which surround Inverness with a beauty and splendour certainly not surpassed in Britain. The inhabitants perambulated the streets during the forenoon, business was suspended, and a universal holiday prevailed. At an early hour a new and beautiful Royal standard floated proudly over the towers of our Castle; at noon the bells of the churches rung a merry peal; and at one o'clock a Royal salute of 21 guns was fired from cannon mounted on the Castle Hill.
By June 5, the Courier’s latest edition could reflect on the full colour and fervour of the historic day, albeit with bad weather in London and Inverness remarked upon.
Its lead article read:
The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth took place in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday, with all the traditional significance, splendour, pomp and pageantry inherent in that solemn occasion. Tumultuous cheers from the thronged stands and streets of London greeted the young Queen and her Consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, as they drove in the State Coach to and from the Abbey, and even more enthusiastic was the welcome the whole Royal Family received when, accompanied by their entourage, they appeared on the Palace balcony in the early evening to see the Royal Air Force "Fly Past."
Thanks to the universality of broadcasting, millions of people all over the world were able to share in the wonders of a wonderful day - wonderful in every way except the weather - the service being broadcast in its entirety, and the progress of the various processions, and other stirring events, being vividly described. For the first time in history, moreover, thousands of people in Britain and the Continent were able to see much of the solemn service and its preceding and succeeding on television sets, and even in the Highlands, where reception is on the whole unobtainable, experimental viewers at Tain and Dornoch had excellent results, although in Inverness they were poor until evening.
As in London, where it was one of the coldest June days ever recorded, so in the rest of the country, and the Highlands in particular, the day was grey and bitterly cold, with frequent heavy showers of rain, which marred, but failed to ruin, the many ceremonial parades, processions, parties, entertainments, etc., arranged for young and old, and everywhere there was much heartfelt rejoicing.
Loyal messages were sent to the Queen from all over the Highlands, including Inverness, and the snow-clad top of Ben Nevis, and at night bonfires blazed from hil's, fields, roads, and streets throughout the length and breadth of the land.
Yesterday and on Wednesday the Queen and the Duke went for Coronation drives in North-East and North-West London, where again they were rapturously received.
