The royal tour 1954

As part of the celebrations for her new reign the Queen and Prince Philip undertook a long tour of Commonwealth countries after the coronation.  It so happened that the tour reached Wellington soon after we moved there.  We were still living with our grandparents. As my grandparents were  members of ‘the Establishment’ and lived at the top of the Cable Car very near town this meant we were able to participate in things quite easily.  I always remember that when I moved to Australia fifteen years later I was very surprised to find some of the people I was working with had never seen a member of the royal family.  It was quite a common occurrence for us and I do know that the royal couple were in Wellington for a week and we saw them every day but one.

They arrived on a Saturday afternoon.  This meant crowds of people lining Lambton Quay and I assume most of the other main streets, to see them drive to Government House where they were to stay for the week.  Our whole family went as it was only a short cable car ride from our grandparents’ house into town.  My outstanding memory of this day is not of the royal couple but of a very drunk man who made several attempts to get onto the outside seats of the cable car.  He kept falling off and as an eight year old I was very glad we had our father with us.  I do not think I had seen a really drunk person before.  I remember it held the cable car up but we got down to town and took up our positions on the pavement outside my grandfather’s office.  Margaret and I were both clutching our flags.  All children appeared to have these and I assume they were New Zealand flags rather than Union Jacks.  The queen was in an open-top car and it was the practice throughout the week to push the children to the front.  This was great in terms of getting a good view although later in the week the crowd surged so that I ended up within touching distance of the queen and could not really see her face!

Just a brief glimpse of the royal couple that day but the next day was Sunday and they attended church at St Pauls Cathedral.  My grandparents were parishioners and my grandfather was on the vestry so they ‘had’ a pew.  This meant they had a right to sit in the second pew on the right hand side of the centre aisle unless it was wanted by the people from Government House. This happened regularly when they attended church and we would have to sit elsewhere.  The bench seats were upholstered in a very coarse red fabric so for little girls in their short skirts it was pretty uncomfortable.  On this occasion we were, I think, seated in the south transept.  We wore our school uniform.  On important occasions we always had to wear school uniform which I think says something about how people assumed you dressed for important occasions as well as about how few clothes we had apart from our (expensive) uniform.  Obviously the church was full and we just went where we were told to go.  I do not remember anything about the service but I am sure we were there.

We had no plans to see the royal couple on the Monday.  However my father was on holiday and he appeared during the morning and told Margaret and me that we would go for a walk through the botanical gardens.  These stretched from the vicinity of the top of the cable car right down the hill to the Cenotaph at the junction of Lambton Quay and Bowen Street.  The area by the cenotaph was nicely landscaped so people always stood there when there was any procession.  When my father told us of the planned walk, Margaret and I immediately worked out what his plan was so we found our flags, rushed into the loo and pushed them up our knicker legs.  (Our knickers were made of cotton with elastic in the bottom of the legs.  They were very substantial by today’s standards.)  As it turned out, we were too nervous to extract the flags in public so we just wore them all day.

Tuesday we definitely did not see the royal couple although this may have been the day of the royal garden party which my grandparents and parents attended.  My grandparents were presented to the Queen which was considered a great honour.  I remember going to Kirkcaldie and Stains to buy some bright pink shoes for my mother to wear to the garden party.  They were made by Norvic of Norwich and were very expensive.

Wednesday was important for children as this was the day the Queen and Prince Philip visited Athletic Park, the main rugby ground, and ‘inspected' the city’s children.  As Margaret was only six, she had to sit in the stands with our parents but the rest of us were dressed in our school uniforms even though it was the summer holidays and lined up in square blocks.  Then the Queen drove up and down between the squares in an open-topped car.

People in those days put a lot of time and effort into what they wore on formal occasions.

I know one day the royal couple went to Lower Hutt so there was nothing for us in Wellington that day and another day they attended the races at Trentham racecourse.  Finally it was Saturday and they left.  Again, we were taken down to Lambton Quay to wave our flags.  This was the occasion when I was almost crushed into the queen’s shoulder so I did not really see anything.

It all feels very quaint and long ago now but you have to remember that we did not have any media, other than radio and if you were lucky enough to live in a town they were visiting you certainly took trouble to see them if you could.