ONLY one in ten of us has witnessed the coronation of our monarch.
Just 14 per cent of the population were around on June 2, 1953, when a young mum was crowned Queen Elizabeth II.
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And unless you are older than King Charles who was four when he watched from a balcony in Westminster Abbey as his mother was crowned, you won’t remember that historic day.
In 18 days, Charles will take centre stage for his coronation.
The Sun’s royal photographer Arthur Edwards, now 82, recently recalled attending a Coronation party in East London as a 12-year-old.
Here are YOUR memories of that incredible day.
I was crowned Queen in 1953 too!
QUEEN Elizabeth’s was not the only coronation taking place on June 2, 1953.
In Birmingham, Sylvia Platt, then 12, was also bedecked in finery and jewels, before being crowned and paraded through the streets.
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Retired flour factory cleaner Sylvia, now 82, says: “Months in advance, our few streets formed a committee and decided to go really big to celebrate the coronation of Princess Elizabeth.
“My mum, Mabel, organised the committee and my dad’s job was to go round the houses every week collecting a few pennies for all the food and drink on the day.
“It wasn’t long after the war, so people still had their VE-Day bunting.”
Competition was fierce over who would play the Queen and Sylvia suspects the committee was rigged.
“Mum was the head of it and so she decided I should be Queen.”
Dad, George, found Coldstream guard costumes at a local warehouse with matching bearskins for the local boys to dress up in and Mabel lent her pearls for Sylvia’s crown.
Sylvia says: “We did the whole coronation as best we could with the soldiers all lined up around me and the crown placed on my head.
“Then the throne was put on a flatbed truck and driven around all the streets so I could wave to everybody like Her Majesty.
“I felt so regal and special it was amazing.
“It was one of the most special days of my life.
“Dickie Valentine wrote a song for the coronation called A Golden Coach, which we all sang. I still know all the words.”
Celebrating a monarch she adored is something Sylvia will treasure.
She says: “There was no one like our Queen. She was so beautiful the day of the coronation.
“I’ll watch The King next month on a much bigger telly than the ones back in 1953.
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“Back then our whole street was decorated but I don’t suppose people will do much this time.
“I’ll be putting a few flags in my windows to celebrate.”
Norman and Norma, the Coronation twins
NORMAN Phillip O’Neill and his sister Norma Elizabeth, were the Coronation twins – their middle names honouring the Royal pair.
Their parents, Marie and Albert, expected one baby so arranged a home birth in St Leonards near Hastings.
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Norma was born at 12.45am on June 2, 1953, and Norman arrived 10 minutes later.
Norma, now Mrs Deeprose, 69, of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, says: “Mum was totally surprised when the midwife told her she was having twins.
“This was long before the ultrasound.
“Back then a mother didn’t give birth to twins at home.”
Former care-home worker Norma says: “Afterwards the Mayor of Hastings presented my parents with a new pram.”
Dad-of-four Norman moved to Telford, Shropshire, 50 years ago and worked for a firm making car seats.
He says: “I wonder if there will be a new pair of twins for King Charles’s coronation.”
Street party then we packed in to watch TV
EVE Cann celebrated the epic day in 1953 dressed as Lady Godiva at her street’s Coronation party in Forest Gate, London.
She says: “I had a pink swimsuit that looked a bit flesh coloured and I told my brother John I wanted to go as Lady Godiva.
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“He came home a few days later with an old bicycle he’d found and set about making it good so it could be my horse. I didn’t win (the fancy dress contest) but it was such a magnificent day.
“The kids all played out in the street until night, then the adults got together and the beer came out.
“A lady in our street had a TV so the following day she invited us all into hers to watch what we’d missed.
“There were so many people in the room.
Eve, now 82, of Rainham, Essex, says: “I won’t be doing much this Coronation.”
We came to attention as Queen’s carriage neared
RAF man Ted Adams was one of 29,000 service personnel who lined the route of the Queen’s five-mile procession.
Ted, now 96, from Pinner, West London, recalls: “Two weeks before it we were issued with new uniforms and bayonets to attach to our rifles.
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“Only on the morning itself did I find out I’d be route lining, outside Selfridges department store in London.
“It meant standing smartly at ease for ten hours. Around 2.30 I started to hear music.
“You could feel the crowd’s excitement building.
“We came smartly to attention as the Queen’s carriage approached. I’ll never forget it.
“Because of the rain we’d all been told to put ground sheets on. So the hundreds of hours spent polishing so we gleamed had been wasted.”
Ted adds: “Many who took part were given a medal but mine never reached me.”
I ran before I walked thanks to the coronation
RITA Westlake took her first steps as a toddler when the Queen was crowned.
She says: “My family were living in Peckham and hired a TV to watch the Coronation.
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“At the moment trumpeters sounded I became terrified, leapt to my feet and took my first ever steps towards my mum.”
Rita, 71, of St Tudy, Cornwall, adds: “Thanks to the Queen I ran before I could walk.”
Her D-Day veteran dad John, 97, is a former RAF fitter armourer who went all the way from Normandy to Berlin with tank-busting Typhoon aircraft.
He was working abroad during the Queen’s coronation so missed his daughter’s historic first steps.
John and Rita joined the huge crowds in London last June to pay tribute to the Queen during her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Dad bought telly to see guardsman son at Mall
WHEN Bob Hambrook’s dad learned his guardsman son, right, would be on duty in the Mall on Coronation Day he splashed out on a telly.
Bob, from Harwich, Essex was on national service with the Coldstream Guards.
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He had just started going out with 17-year-old Jane, who would become his wife.
Jane, now 87, of Marham, Norfolk, remembers: “I was so proud of him.
“On the day, his dad was glued to the TV and kept asking ‘is that Bob?’.
“The picture was so grainy it was impossible to point him out but that’s how proud we were.”
Bob got through the 12 hours without fainting.
During a week of leave afterwards he and Jane went to London to look at all the decorations.
She says: “I felt like Her Majesty was following us as she drove around a lot that week waving at well-wishers.”
Bob died in 2008 but Jane will be watching the crowning of King Charles III with her great-great grandchildren.
Brother and I both won fancy dress contest
Kay Marson won the girls’ fancy dress competition at her street party, right, and her brother Jim won the boys category.
She says: “‘I was five and Jim was three. I went as The Queen and he was Charlie Tully, a Celtic player in the team that won the newly created Coronation Cup.”
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Their family lived in a flat in Bridgeton, Glasgow.
Kay, 74, now of Chichester, Sussex, recalls: “The street party was amazing.
“I won a tin of toffees but Jim was taken round all the pubs on the men’s shoulders.
“He came back with handfuls of pennies he’d been given which felt like a fortune back then.
“I think Mum probably had the most of it for bills and shopping.
“The day after the street party I was invited to a local girl’s house as she had a telly.
“It all looked so special. The Queen looked beautiful.”
I stood guard with my lifelong pals at Abbey
GUY Watkins and his comrades from Sandhurst Military college were sent to London in 1953 to stand guard outside Westminster Abbey.
Guy, 89, of Petworth, West Sussex, joined the Royal Artillery, spent 34 years in the army rising to Major General, and often met the Queen.
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He recalls her coronation vividly.
He says: “My lasting memories are getting up at 2.30am, marching to Camberley Station, arriving in London, having breakfast on a station platform, then marching to Westminster Abbey, standing in the rain for four hours.”
Guy says: “We had all joined the Army when King George VI was on the throne.
“We became known as the Coronation Intake because of our involvement.
“We still stay in touch – nine of us marched at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday in November.”
It was the Coronation Intake’s last outing – they will be replaced by a new group for the King’s Coronation.
Five shillings prize made up for missing games
PATRICIA Bowdin was 14 on Coronation Day when she won first prize as Queen Elizabeth at her village party.
Villagers in Giggleswick, North Yorkshire, were so excited they renamed their local stream The Thames.
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Patrician, now 84, recalls: “I had to be crowned indoors because just like London, the weather turned and it ended up pouring.
“There was a local hospital in the village and as The Queen, I had to visit it on Coronation Day and say hello to everyone there.
“Because I was in all my finery I couldn’t join in with the races and all the games. I was upset but the five-shilling prize money made up for it.
“I’ll watch the Coronation on TV this year – it’ll be a much quieter one for me than the last one but it won’t be the same as in 1953.”