On Wednesday 6th February 1952, exactly 70 years’ ago today, King George VI died unexpectedly. Princess Elizabeth became Queen. She was away in Africa at the time but returned to England quickly. The Coronation took place the next year on Tuesday 2nd June 1953. We were still then having rationing after the war. Today we are focussing - not on the whole of the Queen’s 70 years, - but on memories of the beginning, in 1952 and 1953, when Janet and I and others were 8 or 9 years old.

Memories of 70 years’ ago from Janet our Churchwarden:

I was 8 years old when King George VI died. I remember that the announcement came on the wireless as I and my classmates were taking part in a Music and Movement lesson. The broadcast was interrupted by the solemn voice of John Snagg. This is London. It is with the greatest sorrow that we must make the following announcement. His Majesty the King has died peacefully in his sleep at Sandringham House. The other classes joined us in the hall, and we sat cross-legged on the floor and quietly watched as the flag on the church opposite was lowered to half-mast. Our teachers had hankies to their faces, and their grief was palpable. As the days and weeks followed, our thoughts began to turn towards our new Queen and her Coronation.

My parents ran a County Council home for about 20 children in Winchester, and they decided that we should enter a float for the procession to be held on Coronation Day in the city. The title would be: The old woman who lived in a shoe - that is the one, who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. We certainly had the numbers for that!

My father set about constructing the ‘shoe’ to sit on the top of a flat-top lorry. He used chicken wire for the basic shape and covered it with canvas painted white. Meanwhile my mother and her staff of ‘aunties’ began thinking about costumes for everyone.

When the day finally came, I remember that it was very cold! We had to use a step ladder to climb onto the lorry, and then we were driven to the army barracks parade ground where we waited until we were able to join the procession. Given that there were 20 children trapped on board, and the cold weather, it was fortunate that my mother, practical as ever, had remembered to bring a chamber pot!

The most exciting part of the day was slowly travelling down Winchester’s High Street. (This would not be possible today as it is now a pedestrian precinct.) We were awarded a prize, and a photograph of our float was on the front page of the special supplement of the local paper.

As with all such events, it was over in a flash, but the memory of that day stays with me still.

From Roger:

When we came to the Coronation, my Father, who worked for the Armament Department, obtained some surplus flags and went to some lengths to stretch a very large Union Jack high up across the front of our house. A certain little boy, who had studied these things deeply in the Cubs, then pointed out that the flag was actually upside down – a sign of great distress, - so Father had to do it again. A neighbour then arrived to advise that one of our most colourful flags meant that the Sovereign was actually in residence, so action was again urgently needed. 

News arrived on Coronation Day that Mount Everest had been climbed for the first time, just before, on 29th May.

Our house was at the top of a cul-de-sac, so the stage for entertainment and the street party were close by. I was dressed as a Pearly King for the fancy dress competition.

A large important man from the Town Council, came to the School to bestow a commemorative Coronation cup and saucer upon each child. When I approached his table, I saw a dodgy substandard cup at the top of the box. ‘He’s surely not going to give me that one, is he?’, I wondered. But, oh yes, - although I felt that I had better not argue!

Many people got their first, rather primitive, television to watch the Coronation with their neighbours. Christina’s family did that, but mine was not in that league. 

A new edition of the Book of Common Prayer was published around that time, with Queen Elizabeth’s name in the prayers. My parents gave me one at Christmas 1952 as my first service book.

On 15th June 1953, shortly after the Coronation, great numbers of the Navy’s ships lined up between the shore and the Isle of Wight and were lit up in the evening for the Queen to review. My family and many others watched from Stokes Bay.

Three months’ later, on 7th September 1953, Neville Duke, who had been a fighter pilot in the War, set a world air speed record. I was 9 years old and saw the picture in the paper but had no idea then that I would be the priest leading the famous man’s funeral 54 years later at Tangmere in 2007.

Around Coronation time I was given an innovative plastic money box. Plastic light switches and radios had been made of brown Bakelite, but now we could have shiny blue marbled hard plastic. We might reflect on where hard plastic has brought us in 70 years! 

Today seems the time to say something about authority. Whether it be in the State, the Government, or the Church or in other institutions. There is, firstly, institutional authority. Someone has an appointment, a position. Great. But something else needs to coincide, which is moral authority. Where we feel that they are up to the job, they know what they’re doing, they care about those they serve, they are a good person and trying hard: they earn our confidence and our respect. 

If you have someone in a post who doesn’t also have moral authority – disaster. But you can have someone like Jesus, who had the moral authority – but no normal institutional position at all. He was not trained or ordained as a Rabbi, but was recognised and followed because he knew what he was about.

We have had a Queen who inherited the job, which has a Christian content, and who happily also embraced it and measured up to it. There is no guarantee that successors always will. Institutional authority and moral authority need to coincide. And even when appointments are by election, it does not always work.

There are other things that need to coincide too - glory and holiness. Jesus at the Transfiguration is seen as glorious. But he was fundamentally holy, - the holiest. Glory is not something to seek, it only properly comes as a result of holiness and Godliness. There are those, like Hitler, and some other political leaders and some unfit royals who seek glory, but are lacking in holiness, and that spells disaster. Any glory must follow on from holiness, or it is spurious and dangerous.

Our readings remind us that the only very true and genuine kingship and community will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, and that the mark of monarchy and leadership, in Christian terms, is service, not the seeking of glory and privilege.