COMPARED with the pared-down coronation expected on May 6, George VI’s in 1937 looked like a grand, if monochrome, affair in the newsreels. However, artist Dorothy Maltby—wife of Bedford MP Sir Richard Wells—experienced it in full, blazing colour from her seat in Westminster Abbey and chronicled it all in a newsletter that she typed for her children, as kindly given to us by her grandson, Mike Wells. Here’s an extract from her engagingly detailed report:
‘Mary, the housekeeper, called us at five o’clock and we had breakfast at six. I managed to dress my own hair—Dick gave me a sweet little “pearl” tiara, the feathers and veil were set in a comb, and, with two hairpins, I was quite secure all day. I wore the blue lace dress I was presented in five years ago and, as things turned out, I’m thankful I didn’t get a new frock. With a white fur tippet and long white gloves, I was quite snug and warm all day.
‘We had fun the night before preparing supplies; no cases or parcels were allowed in the
