Preparations for Coronation Day continue …
“I, of course, gave a great deal of thought how to meet eventualities.For example, what would happen to the very expensive uniforms of the high officers of the Royal Household and other magnificos riding in the outdoor procession, not to mention the thousands of soldiers and other people taking part in it or lining the route, if there was a truly British downpour of rain? There was probably no sensible answer to this, except perhaps the Earl Marshal’s which, though not I believe original, was: “If that happens, then I suppose people will get wet”.
But another “what would happen if … ?” question, which I felt I had to ask – though it was hardly my business – was not quite so trivial. Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, who was amongst other things, Deputy Supreme Commander of SHAPE at the time, had occasion to check up with me the exact nature and details of his duties on The Day (he was to carry the Royal Standard in the Grand Procession in the Abbey) and, after dealing with his many rather searching questions, I took the opportunity of asking him whether he had considered the over-all security position during the ceremony, especially as regards the Abbey. It seemed to me, I suggested, the perfect opportunity for those who, to put it mildly, did not wish us well to remove at one stroke almost everyone of any consequence in the United Kingdom, and many others too. The Field Marshal did not laugh, and indeed he became very thoughtful for a moment. What he actually said, however, was remarkably reassuring.
At about eleven o’clock on the night before the coronation, I went to the Abbey to have a final look at the place where, within a few hours, so much would be happening after so many months of preparation. The interior was dimly lit and was like an enormous stage set, cavernous, still and utterly quiet, as if the great Abbey church was holding its breath. On all sides were countless rows of seats in countless tiers, all empty and waiting. In the Theatre stood the great dias and on top of it the solitary golden throne. Between that and the altar was King Edward’s Chair, ready for the most sacred and solemn of moments; in it the Queen would be anointed and in it she would be crowned just as so many English kings and queens had been before her.
The Chair is not in itself a particularly beautiful object; it shows all too clearly signs of old age (it is nearly 700 years old). Nevertheless it seems to have about it an air of ancient dignity and it must surely be the most venerable piece of furniture in this country if not in the whole world. Once it was brightly painted and gilded but now nearly all of that has gone, leaving little more than the old carved woodwork, and even some of that is missing. Many initials have been incised on it through the centuries by people who should have known better, and contained in its base the Scottish Stone of Destiny, which has been there since 1296.
For coronations this chair’s hard oak seat is overlaid with a sumptuous new purple velvet cushion and, on this particular night, when I look upon the hallowed scene and thought about the morrow, I did not, curiously enough, feel absolutely paralysed with fear when I saw that the chair was occupied. A couple of truly British charladies, dear comfortable old bones from the Ministry of Works, were having a natter there, one seated in the mystic chair upon the velvet cushion, trying it out as it were, the other leaning against the arm of it, both with the tools of their trade close by. If they had been having a brew-up, which would perhaps have been more normal, I would have taken stronger action in case they spilled their tea, but as it was, since they were just resting from their labours, I only suggested to the police on the way out that they might persuade them to take their ease somewhere else.”
(To be continued)
The Hon, Sir George Bellew, KCB, KCVO, KStJ, FSA.