What did JAGS pupils make of the 1953 Coronation?
In honour of the Coronation of Charles III this weekend, our fantastic archivist has been admirably digging through the treasure trove of JAGS history to reveal what life was like at the school 70 years ago during the last Coronation.
How did JAGS plan to celebrate the 1953 Coronation of Elizabeth II?
To answer this question, we must dive into the school’s minutes from the 1953-54 academic year.
The coronation receives a number of mentions over the course of the year.
In February, Head Mistress Ethel Edwards reported she had “been in touch with Mr. Hudson of Alleyn’s School and have agreed with him over the dates of the Coronation Holiday” – confirming the school would close from May 25 to June 3.
To celebrate this weekend’s Coronation, JAGS has produced commemorative badges for staff and students. However, back in 1953 governors voted against providing such souvenirs!
Minutes from a May meeting (see right), show the idea of Coronation souvenirs was floated but “after a full consideration of the matter it was agreed that no souvenirs should be presented to the pupils. It was instead agreed the school should purchase “furniture and/or trees” not exceeding £50, in order to commemorate the occasion.
Two Coronation seats, each 6 ft. long, were ordered from the En Tout Cas Company, in Leicester, at a a cost of “£20. 18s. 6d”.
We searched high and low around the JAGS site in recent weeks but it appears that sadly those benches no longer remain!
What was life like at the school in 1953?
As the 1953 whole school photo shows, the school was far smaller than it is today. Back in the Queen’s Coronation year, the entire school, including the Junior School, fit across just eight rows.
In comparison we needed 13 rows for the Senior School alone when we gathered together on the playing fields towards the end of 2022.
What did pupils think of the Coronation?
The arrival of Queen Elizabeth II is first mentioned in the 1952 school magazine, which reports how JAGS was “shocked to hear of the death of His Majesty King George the Sixth” and had “tried to express our sorrow by cancelling after-school activities by conforming as far as possible with the Earl Marshal’s request for mourning”.
Many senior pupils paid tribute by attending the Lying-in-State at Westminster Hall. And on the day of King George’s funeral, a service was held in the school hall before two minutes of silence was observed.
The 1953 edition of the magazine then provides a unique insight into the events surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation, with Year 12 pupil Gillian Morgan submitting an article on the momentous day (produced in full below) which even includes reference to the Queen’s “excited four-year-old son”.
“GOD SAVE QUEEN ELIZABETH !”
IT was a cold, snowy Saturday. Since dawn, crowds had been gathering in the streets of London to see the procession, for it was January 14th, 1559, and the eve of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth.
The messengers of the Queen’s privy chamber were at the head of the long line of officials riding two by two, in order of seniority. The Earl of Arundel, bearing the Queen’s sword, led the officers of state and the Queen’s household, together with the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl Marshal, and the Earl of Oxford, the Lord Chamberlain. Only four foreign ambassadors attended and, as the Archbishop of Canterbury had lately died, the Archbishop of York was lone, followed by two Secretaries of State.
Then came the centrepiece of the show – the Queen’s litter, Elizabeth of England was dressed in a royal robe of rich cloth of gold and wore the coronet of a princess. The litter, trimmed to the ground with gold brocade, was borne by two fine mules adorned with the same material. Immediately behind the litter was Lord Robert Dudley, leading the Queen’s own palfrey of honour. On either side walked gentlemen-pensioners in crimson damask carrying gilt battle-axes, and a multitude of footmen in crimson velvet jerkins, studded with silver and ornamented back and front with a white and red rose and the letters “E.R” They were followed by six ladies on palfreys and three chariots, bearing peeresses and ladies of the household.
From Fenchurch Street to Cheapside, the streets were enclosed with wooden rails, hung with velvet, damask and silk. Behind, stood the members of City Companies in their livery, furs and chains of gold. At intervals along the route, the City authorities had prepared pageants to express London’s faith in the new Queen. Each was accompanied by music, with lusty fanfares of trumpets. On the porch of St. Peter’s Church at Cheapside, the city waits played music as the Queen went by and, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, on the boys of Colet’s school spoke a Latin oration in her honour. The City said farewell to the Queen at Temple Bar. Next day she was crowned in Westminster Abbey with symbolic ceremony.
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On a rainy June day, nearly four hundred years later, London again prepared to greet a young Queen Elizabeth, as she went to her Coronation. Once again, the weather was unkind, but the crowds cheerfully ignored the rain. Hundreds had camped out for one and even two days and nights, while thousands left home in the early hours of June 2nd to take their places in the stands and in the streets along the processional route.
Many changes had come over the face of London. Old buildings had been destroyed and new ones built. Radio and television made it possible for millions, in their own homes, to hear and see the procession and even the ceremony of the Coronation itself. Perhaps the crowd was dressed more soberly than the crowd of 1559, but the pageantry was no less colourful, Elizabeth I had had no scarlet-coated Guards with their imposing bearskins, no Canadian Mounties, to escort her.
