Crowning moment was a tonic for a nation that was enduring austerity after years of war Fuld THE

The Coronation

ROWNING Queen ElizaC beth II was a spectacular moment destined to lift her subjects out of the malaise of the postwar period. But this new Elizabethan Britain was still reeling from the financial and social fallout of the Second World War, broke, with parts of its cities flattened by Nazi bombing raids.

The new Queen was just what the warweary British and wider Commonwealth needed.

Beautiful, youthful and glamorous, with her dashing prince on her arm, she was like a fairy tale come true. After months of preparation, Elizabeth II was crowned in Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. For the first time, the ceremony and the huge public celebrations were broadcast on television across the UK, the Commonwealth and the rest of the world. It had not all gone smoothly.

There was a shortage of professional coachmen to help transport dignitaries to Westminster Abbey. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands saved the day by presenting them with a number of mounts as a token of thanks for the royal family's help during the war.

The new Commonwealth, so precious to the Queen, was woven into the imagery of the day: along with the home nations' rose, leek, shamrock and thistle, the emblems of other states of the Commonwealth were embroidered into the silk of the Queen's coronation dress.