King Charles' coming coronation stirs memories of queen 70 years ago
CTV
As anticipation grows for the coronation of King Charles III, many people remember Queen Elizabeth on the day of her coronation.
Pamela Tawse was 18 and still in her nurse's uniform and cap when she made her way to central London after her night shift, eager to catch a glimpse of the new Queen Elizabeth on the day of her coronation.
It was the huge crescendo of noise she remembers today, aged 88, twinkling in delight as she thinks back to a time when Britain, still enduring rationing eight years after the end of World War Two, turned out in force to see the opulence and glamour of the start of a historic reign.
"We climbed over the barricades and the crowds were really deep," Tawse recounted.
"Then suddenly, we heard an enormous roar, and we knew that probably the queen was coming by," she said, her eyes vividly lighting up at the memory through a pair of gold rimmed glasses.
Tawse had decorated the hospital bedpans in red, white and blue tape, a small symbol of the excitement greeting 27-year old Elizabeth as the new head of the royal family on the brink of a technicolor age.
For Brenda Piper, who slept on the pavement to secure a spot along the procession route, there was a sense of amazement at the sheer "spectacle" of the queen sweeping past in a gold state coach.
"This Elizabethan age, it really did begin that way," she said, clutching a black and white photograph of herself with friends on the day. "Next thing it was coffee bars, and then spaghetti bolognese, and then mini skirts. So it really was a beginning."
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