The Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla this month will almost certainly be an event that will be recalled in future reminisces. It will, perhaps, stir memories for those that can remember the celebrations that took place in and around the Revesby Estate when Queen Elizabeth 11 was crowned in June 1953. Perhaps memories of a children’s tea party on the village green at Revesby and an even larger event in Horncastle. The Revesby connection to coronations at Westminster Abbey can be traced to The 5^th Earl of Clancarty, William Fredrick le Poer Trench; as an Irish Peer of The House of Lords he would have had a prime position in the esteemed ensemble of royalty and dignitaries who formed the congregation at the coronation of both Edward V11 and later George V. The 5^th Earl was of course the father of Lady Beryl le Poer Trench and the Father in Law of Sir Richard Stanhope of Revesby.

Major events in our lives are an eclectic mix. For those of senior years perhaps the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 11 in 1953 lives on in their memory. For those of even more senior years perhaps the Coronation of George V1 in 1938 may spark some recollection.

Although I was a tender 2 years and 10 months old at the time of the late Queen’s Coronation, my imagination makes me romanticise that perhaps I was aware of crowded rooms around an 11” Pye television, black and white images visible through a fug of tobacco smoke. Street parties with rows of trestle tables attended by hungry kids who ogled the fare on offer, seldom seen cakes, biscuits and sandwiches (wartime rationing did not end until the following year). Bunting and proud union jacks fluttering over the melee of joyous celebration.

After all, this was a chance to rejoice after wartime austerity and the first ever televised coronation. Over twenty million people (perhaps I was one of them) viewed the small black and white pictures, and outnumbered radio listeners for the first time.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, public spectacle sometimes overshadowed religious significance. At George III‘s coronation some of the congregation began to eat a meal during the sermon. George IV‘s coronation was a great theatrical occasion, but he flatly refused to allow his estranged wife Caroline to enter the Abbey. William IV had to be persuaded to have a coronation at all and spent so little money on it that it became known as ‘the penny coronation’. With Queen Victoria‘s coronation in 1838 came a renewed appreciation of the true religious meaning of the ceremony.

By the time Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in 1953 millions’ around the world were able to witness her coronation on television.

Let us wish King Charles III and Queen Camilla a joyous reign and may their coronation live on in the memories of their loyal subjects.

GOD SAVE THE KING!

Arthur