Almost 650 million people inhabited Britain and the Commonwealth in June 1953, a quarter of the world’s population, and all of them seemed to be celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
In Norman times a day-long celebration took place with guests taking a break to follow the clergy and new king in procession to the Abbey for religious consecration. The tradition ended with William IV whose carousing so upset the populace that the custom was dropped by Queen Victoria and never resumed.
The coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey is today the centrepiece of the celebrations and when Queen Elizabeth arrived
