On Saturday 6th May, the first coronation of a British monarch in the 21st century will take place – that of King Charles III.
It has been nearly 70 years since the last coronation took place, and our Council Archives contains many records that reflect how Parramatta of the 1950’s celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, on the 2nd of June 1953.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a public holiday “Coronation Day” would be observed in NSW, and a state-wide coronation week would be established, with “every shire and municipality cooperating with the Government to make the occasion gay and memorable.”
The City of Parramatta Council was one of the many municipalities that participated in arranging local celebrations for the coronation. On the 12th of February 1953, the Premier of NSW, J.J Cahill, sent a letter to the Mayor of Parramatta, E.A. Mobbs, to suggest that people throughout the State should have opportunities to take part in Thanksgiving Services and celebrations:
Preparations
Our Council Minutes reflect that discussions soon commenced on how the coronation might be celebrated in Parramatta. By the 7th of April, a Mayoral Minute was received outlining the initial ideas for the celebration. It was resolved that a separate committee, “The Coronation Day Observance Committee,” would be formed to make the necessary arrangements, and that the Council would authorise 10,000 souvenir medals to be distributed to school children across the LGA on Coronation Day.
The Mayoral Minute can be read below, and includes suggestions for a programme for school children including a pet show, billy cart derby and inter-school sporting competitions, cooperation with the Tea Bureau for a Tea Week to be held, and events for the adult residents of the LGA such as boat racing, light car racing and water skiing:
Fundraisers were arranged by the Council to support local organisations. This included the Schools Queen Competition (a balloon derby) where schools across the LGA could sell the tags attached to each balloon for £1 in support of the Parramatta District Hospital. The school that sold the most tags was able to nominate a senior female student to be a ‘Coronation Queen’ during Tea Week. The sale of balloon tags raised £63.7 for the hospital, and Glennys Lord was appointed the ‘Coronation Queen.’ For purchasers of the tags, there was a cash prize for the balloon that travelled fastest during the derby. Tea Week programmes were also distributed to Boys Scouts Associations, who kept the proceeds from the programmes sold.
While the Council was busy making preparations, individuals and organisations wrote in to contribute their own suggestions for how the coronation could be celebrated. Our records include a letter from the Arts Council of Australia to ask about space in the LGA to exhibit the Crown Jewels exhibition and an associated catalogue, a letter from T.F Morgan, a Sydney based agent for fireworks company C.T Brock and Co in England, who enclosed a Special Coronation Catalogue of fireworks displays, and a letter from the NSW Standing Committee in Support of the Call, enclosing a list of material they could provide to “develop increased appreciation of the moral and spiritual importance of the Coronation of Her Majesty the Queen.”
Tea Week and the Coronation Celebrations
After months of preparations, the celebrations came to light when Coronation Tea Week ran in Parramatta between the 1st and 5th of June, along with a special program of events for Coronation Day on June 2nd. Coronation Tea Week commenced with tea demonstrations held in Murray Brothers, Grace Bros, the Waratah Salon and the Australian Gas Light Company, the opening of a photographic exhibition of the "arts and crafts" of Ceylon (Sri-Lanka), and a procession from Lennox Bridge through to Parramatta Town Hall, which reportedly drew a crowd of 30,000 people. Coronation Day commenced with combined religious services held at St. John’s Church, the schoolchildren’s rally at Cumberland Oval, and the Coronation Regatta in Parramatta Park, which reportedly included the first vintage car rally in Parramatta. The week continued with a choral competition for schoolchildren at Parramatta Town Hall, a presentation by the Parramatta Musical Society “One Wild Oat,” tea and tea cake demonstrations for housewives, a variety concert at Parramatta Town Hall, and a Civic Reception for the High Commissioner of Ceylon, J.A Martenfz.
Contained within our Cultural Collections is one of the 10,000 medals distributed by the Council on Coronation Day:
Contained within our Council Archives is audiovisual footage of Tea Week and Coronation Day. The footage includes the Tea Week parade, various buildings around Parramatta decorated for the occasion (including Murray Brothers and Parramatta Town Hall) and the Coronation Regatta on the Parramatta River:
Congratulations to Her Majesty the Queen
In addition to celebrations arranged at a local level, the Mayor of Parramatta passed on more formal congratulations when he sent a telegram to The Private Secretary of Her Majesty the Queen on the 3rd of June:
A letter written by the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, on Buckingham Palace letterhead, was received on the 17th June 1953, reading: "Dear Mr Mayor, I am commanded by The Queen to thank you for the kind message which you have sent on the occasion of Her Majesty's Coronation. Please convey to all on whose behalf you wrote an expression of The Queen's sincere appreciation of their loyal sentiments. Yours sincerely, Martin Charteris."
In July, the Council resolved to have the letter copied, framed and placed into various Town Halls across the LGA, including Parramatta, Granville, Dundas and Rydalmere.
Select Bibliography
City of Parramatta Archives: Correspondence File 185A
City of Parramatta Archives: PRS21/026 9 March 1953, Sheet Six
City of Parramatta Archives: PRS21/026 7 April 1953, Sheet Two
City of Parramatta Archives: PRS21/026 13 July 1953, Sheet Four
"NSW Plans for Coronation." Sydney Morning Herald 14 April, 1953, page 6.
“Parramatta has big programme for coronation week.” Advertiser (Parramatta) May 21, 1953, page 1.
“Seventy not out” Ferry, Patrick. National Archives of Australia. 7 February 2022. (Last Accessed 4 May 2023: https://www.naa.gov.au/blog/seventy-not-out.)
Paige Davis, Heritage Archivist, 2023.
