Warwickshire woman's 'magical' memories of Queen's coronation

As people reflect on the Queen's 70-year reign, a woman from Warwickshire has recalled how the excitement of the coronation left her ill.

Pauline Pearson was nine when she and her father travelled to London in June 1953.

He had won two tickets in a national ballot to be in Green Park, Piccadilly, for the occasion.

Ms Pearson described the appearance of the Queen's golden coach as "magical".

But she was so overwhelmed at one point, she said her father had to take her away from the crowds to be sick behind the stands.

Ms Pearson, from Stratford-upon-Avon, said she had only been to London once before, for the Festival of Britain in 1951, and to see the Queen on her coronation day was beyond her "wildest dreams".

"My mum, dad and I travelled to London the day before to stay with friends," she said.

"My mum stayed behind on the day to watch on the friends' newly acquired television.

"I remember getting up and leaving the house in the dark, because we had to travel into London by tube and be in our seats by 7am."

She said her father had been brave taking a "fidgety nine-year-old".

People cheered, she recalled, as loudspeakers announced the news Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay of the British Mount Everest Expedition had conquered Mount Everest.

As the procession started to appear, her father took photographs.

One by one, she said, she saw the heads of state, Commonwealth contingents and prime minsters pass by, before members of the royal family appeared and then the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

However, Ms Pearson said her experience was only complete when the film of the coronation service itself came out in cinemas and featured commentary from Sir Laurence Olivier.

Two years later, the Queen and Prince Philip visited King Edward's School in Edgbaston.

"I was in my first year at KEHS [King Edward VI High School for Girls] next door and was able to see them at close quarters as they walked past us in the shared grounds of both schools," she said.

"Needless to say, another special occasion."

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