On June 2, 1953, the Queen’s Coronation Day, it poured with rain. Nine young aristocratic girls were chosen to be maids of honor, including the 21-year-old Lady Anne Coke—subsequently Princess Margaret’s lady-in-waiting and much later the best-selling author Anne Glenconner. She remembers it was dark and cold when they arrived at Westminster Abbey. “Our dresses weren’t lined. There were still rationing and clothing coupons after the war, you see. A tiny thread of blue cotton had been placed on the floor in the abbey, so the Queen knew where to stand,” says Glenconner, recalling the moment, at the back of the abbey, when each maid of honor lifted a portion of the 16-foot velvet Robe of State, and with a quick “Are you ready, girls?” from the future monarch, they were off. “When the procession began, we walked past row upon row of tiaras.”
Garrard, the crown jeweler, had worked overtime to adjust the Imperial State Crown to fit the young Queen’s head; and then there were stacks of aristocratic diadems that needed repair as well. “No one had worn their jewelry or tiaras during the war, which were like great fenders of diamonds,” explains Glenconner. “People were queuing to have them cleaned.”
