Humphrey McQueen penned this twenty years ago, for the 50th anniversary of Betty Windsor’s coronation. Given the on-going brouhaha about Stan Grant, we hope you will find that this piece and the notes with it will ‘add to the merriment of nations,’ as Ming was wont to say. Thanks to Peter Curtis.
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, came sixteen months after her father’s death had postponed yet another royal tour. The significance of the coronation has been erased by the 1954 tour, eight months later. At the time, however, the coronation was much more than a warm-up.
In a late gasp of seeing Britain as “Home”, Australians imagined ourselves over there or conceived of the coronation as happening here. Illustrated books of the ceremonies guided families through the day’s progress as they tuned their radio sets – in effect a DIY television. Letters from listeners to Prime Minister Menzies suggest that they had “channeled” themselves into the Abbey by following his presence over the broadcasts. As one woman wrote, we “felt that we were beside you”. The ABC secured a seat in the Abbey for Gwen Meredith so that devotees of her radio serial “Blue Hills” could accompany her.
Australians created personal relationships with the Royal Family. A lady monarchist told Menzies that “our Little Queen needs a spanking” for her treatment of the Duke of Windsor. From Perth came word that another supporter had just proved his “descent from King Edward the first”. Well-wishers who received form replies from the Queen’s Secretary responded as if they had been offered a peerage.
Thousands did make the journey “home”. The Secretary of Prime Minister’s Department, Allen Brown, warned Menzies that because most visitors were bound to be disappointed at not getting into coronation functions, the government needed to spend more on advice for the tourists. Sending them to the Royal Mews was no solution, Brown concluded, “as most Australian think they have seen horses before”.
The visitors’ expectations were satirised by an office girl at Australia House:
Bill has a seat in the Abbey
Jim two troopings has seen,
But my request is more modest –
I want to dine with the Queen.
When I get back to Australia
Think how impressed folk will be;
So fix it up, there’s a good fellow,
And see that it’s dinner, not tea.
The majority were told to enter an Australia House ballot for 6000 seats along the route, priced at £5.10.00 under cover and £3.10.00 out in the open.
All manner of government and public bodies were funded to send representatives to march in the procession. An aircraftsman had to be dropped as “not a clean skin” because he had deserted his wife and children for a lady in Kings Cross. When dobbing him in, his wife expected “a good hiding”. The RAAF investigated the adultery, but not the domestic violence.
The omission of an Aborigine from the official parties led to suggestions that Captain Reg Saunders, fresh from the Korean battlefront, be dispatched. No one asked Saunders whether he wanted to be a trophy of how colonization had helped his people triumph over what one of his advocates called “nomadic savagery”. The Board of Missions recommended a Cairns nurse who “would conduct herself as well as any white woman”. In the end, Menzies regretted that Aboriginal representation “was not practicable”.
British possessions would be represented at the expense of the Colonial Office. Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck, realized that the one exception would be Papua-New Guinea, an Australian Trust. The dispatch of twenty-five members of the Papua Constabulary was a black comedy. The RAN and RAAF declined transport. Commercial carriers were reluctant. Eventually, the party went on an immigrant ship and returned QANTAS to Sydney before joining a copra boat to Moresby. By such means did Hasluck present “the Throne as a symbol of a direct and personal concern with their welfare and of a benevolent rule over them”.
Backbenchers returned owing the government money. Alex Downer’s father, for instance, dismissed the demand that he return £42 as “most ungenerous”. A Victorian Labor member hired a car to drive him alongside his liner from Suez to Port Said, at £30 pounds. He was “shocked and surprised” on being asked to refund over £300 pounds. Three years later, Menzies agreed to nominal settlements, minuting the by-now mountainous file, “Quieta non movere” – let us pay and look pleasant.
Independence movements and republicanism on the Indian sub-continent, and de-dominisation in Canada and South Africa, meant that the Coronation Oath had to be amended. Australia therefore needed a new Royal Style and Titles Act. Menzies had “no sympathy” with a wording which put “Queen of Australia” ahead of Queen of the United Kingdom. The first title, he argued, could only be a consequence of the latter.
Whitehall, meanwhile, knew that oil was thicker than blood. Her Majesty’s government granted the Sheikhs of Kuwait and Bahrain the status of other monarchs within the Empire, “in view of the desirability of encouraging their connection with the United Kingdom”. The Foreign Office also used the coronation to promote the Empire in the USA. The British Ambassador to Washington thought its importance second only to atomic tests in Australia.
The prohibition against using the royal name or image to promote products was suspended for confectioners. Manufacturers re-branded refrigerators and plastic table-ware with monarchical tags. Diamante tiaras, fashioned by Gaycharm in Sydney, became popular.
Male attire proved a source of anxiety. Would the Papuans be warm enough in lap-laps? Chief Justice Owen Dixon fretted that his robes would use up his baggage allowance. Menzies wore morning dress and not full evening dress to the rehearsal in he Abbey and sulked back to his hotel. On the next day, correctly attired, he had to endure the coo-ees of his countrymen.
The distribution of Coronation Medals to public servants began according to the numbers in each division. Menzies ordered a re-allocation of half to the most senior officers, a move which contradicted the Communist Party’s condemnation of the monarchy as a “weapon to stifle class consciousness”. ASIO used those comments as a pretext to raid Party headquarters for more information towards its case about wartime espionage. Two years of boosting of a New Elizabethan Age did more to get Menzies over the line at the 1954 elections than did any Petrov conspiracy.
Humphrey McQueen,
28 May 2023
Notes
Here is an outline of the issues around which to weave a feature on the 50th anniversary of the Coronation for June 2003.
The celebrations in June 2002 were for the accession.
The jubilee of the coronation will be more spectacular as the Windsors continue to reestablish their dignity.
The case for giving the 1953 event this in-depth attention is threefold.
First, the coronation happened here in the sense that Australians imagined themselves over there, and did as much as they could to bring the over-there back here.
It was the final gasp of the idea that “Home” was Great Britain.
Secondly, how we behaved reveals much about Australia, then and since. John Howard had just become a teenager.
Thirdly, the importance of the Coronation has been swamped in the national memory by the Royal Tour a few months later. At the time, however, the Coronation was as big as the Tour would be. In some ways, the coronation was a warm-up, yet with distinctive elements. It was also a compensation for the cancelled Royal Tours of the previous six years.
The following topics and incidents indicate the range of matters raised by our coronation.
Just how their richness would be presented will emerge in the writing and editing.
OUTLINE
Prelude
Death of the King early in February 1951 led to the cancellation of a Royal tour, yet again.
High politics
Partly because of the start in de-colonisation, and partly because of the Statute of Westminster, Menzies had to introduce a new Royal Style and Titles Act
That debate allowed for a flood of Labor Party Monarchical enthusiasm, and for an avalanche of Colonel Blimpery from the Coalition backbench.
The wording of the Coronation Oath was also being disputed.
These concerns coincided with upsets about dropping DF from our coins
Whitehall used the Coronation to promote Empire in the USA – the Ambassador to Washington said it was second only in importance to atomic tests in Australia.
The arrangements were bent to help in Middle East – the Sheik of Kuwait being accorded the status of a monarch inside the Empire.
Low politics
After a dozen backbenchers had been to the Coronation at public expense, most owed the government money for overspending – some up to several hundred pounds – Alex Downer’s father, for instance. Three years later, Menzies agreed to accept nominal settlements. The correspondence reveals the MPs’ attitudes, and becomes entertaining in a Yes, Ministerish fashion.
Next year, the Petrov Commission investigated the diplomatic passport issued to Evatt’s entourage as it traveled across the USA.
ASIO took the opportunity of an anti-Monarchy in the Communist Review to seize documents – a part of the case it was assembling out of the Venona transcripts that led on to the Petrov affair.
The issue of Coronation Medals around the public service began as an egalitarian move to be spread through the four divisions according to the numbers in each. Then an order went out that these allocations had to be replaced by a system which rewarded senior officials, over clerical assistants.
High Society
Australians in London sought – to put it politely – invitations to Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace.
Others wanted seats along the route, or in Abbey. Gwen Meredith got one. (Some of her characters traveled to London.)
Fashions were set by the Royals – the Colour Council issued official shades for manufacturers to follow.
What men should wear and when provided another diverting aspect – Menzies turned up at the dress rehearsal in the wrong suit and went back to his hotel. The Chief Justice could not fit his robes into the baggage allowance.
Local loyalists
A galaxy of monarchists expressed themselves in verse, letters to the editor, and letters to Menzies – including one from a descendent of Edward I, who lived in West Perth.
Commerce
Trinkets such as diamante tiaras gained popularity – made by Gaycharm.
The various governments gave more substantial items to Her Majesty, such as gold bracelets from the Commonwealth.
The rules about using the royal name or image to promote products were suspended for confectioners. White goods, plastic table-ware etc were branded with aristocratic tags.
Celebrations here
Empire night bonfires; diplomats sat under umbrellas outside Parliament House Canberra to listen to the broadcast; anti-Communist groups allowed to carry their flags in marches.
Illustrated books led families through the day’s progress as they listened on radio – in effect a DIY television.
Official party
All manner of government and public bodies were funded to send representatives. The armed services would march in the procession. Among those chosen was Airman Eady until he was dropped because he had deserted his wife and children for the arms of a lady living in Kings Cross. The details of the case also exposed an acceptance of wife-bashing.
Race matters
No Aboriginal was included in any of the official parties. This led to protests and suggestions from the RSL that Reg Saunders be dispatched. No one asked him if he wanted to be trophy of how civilized he had been made by colonization.
The arguments advanced for sending an Aboriginal, such as those by Olive Pink, were as racist as the failure to include one.
Paul Hasluck realized that all the British colonies and trusts would be represented at the Coronation at the expense of the Colonial Office. The one exception would be PNG which was an Australian territory. Any contingent would have to be a local responsibility. The business of dispatching one proved as saddening, as it is funny. What would the natives wear, eat – sago puddings? How would they travel there and back – would any commercial ship or airline what such passengers? Picking the Constabulary to attend upset the Regiment, which was promised a visit to the Royal Tour. And so it went. (Sir) Albert published his recollections in the Moresby Post.
Menzies
Letters from electors to Menzies reveal that they “channeled” themselves into the Abbey by following his presence on the radio broadcasts. Mention of his name gave them a mystical moment.
The Menzies family visited Scotland, and made themselves known at Balmoral. He became Freeman of Oxford.
Menzies and family came home via South Africa, partly to recuperate from yet another of his illnesses. Pretoria gave him a pair of elephant’s tusks and a stool made out of an elephant’s foot. [They had given the Queen a hunting lodge.]
This visit and gift were just one part of the long romance, as the Apartheid regime courted his willing favours.
Post-June events
Interest was sustained here by the publication of a Coronation Album by the Herald and Weekly Times, and by the commercial screening of the official films, in colour.
At the time of the tour, some of the Robes and replicas of the regalia were on display.
The Royal fever had been raised far higher than it would have been had she landed in 1951 when she was merely the heir to the throne.