Maurice Silk
It was lightly raining and about 20 of us stood outside Charing Cross Station and were then marched off – I think we marched as that’s what Scouts did! We were then allowed on to the route of the Coronation Procession and provided with a bag of souvenir programmes for the Coronation. Our task was to sell these to interested spectators along the route of the procession. I think we were given limits on which part of the route to concentrate on but I obviously was not listening at the time.
It occurred to me much later that there must have been hundreds of Scout troops in the Greater London area alone so it would have been possible to have a Scout every few yards along the route. As the numbers were not as great as this my troop, 13th Royal Eltham, and the other troops involved must have volunteered or been selected in some way for the privilege.
We started off with sales and fairly soon after we had begun it was announced over loudspeakers that Mount Everest had been climbed. This seemed to cheer everyone up and I’m sure that sales of programmes increased.
Eventually sales slowed down and I found I had walked about a third of the way down the Mall, which was probably outside our ‘area’. At this point it seemed a good idea to walk all the way down to look at Buckingham Palace. I’m not sure now about the next move as all more recent celebrations, such as the wedding last year, seem to allow the crowds to stand up right to the palace fence with no escape for a small boy scout. At the Coronation they must have left a road partly open as I could not only walk up and down outside the Palace but I found myself walking down the side of the Palace – now off the route of the procession.
At this point I made a big mistake and decided to walk around the Palace to the other side. I had no idea of the size of the gardens and spent about half an hour negotiating the roads at the back and the other side. It would have served me right if the procession had come down while I was AWOL but I eventually got back to the proper route. Luckily my scout uniform and the remaining programmes convinced people to let me squeeze through to the front again. I began to walk back up the Mall and the procession came by as I got close to the end near Trafalgar Square. The actual procession was a bit of a blur when it finally came. It always annoyed me that my parents seemed to know more about it from watching my aunt’s television.
Nevertheless I had been there and within a few yards and in quite a privileged position. As people began to drift away we handed in the loot and went home slightly damp.
