AFTER more than a year of planning, Britain was ready for the biggest national celebration since the end of the war.

Queen Elizabeth II, aged only 27, was about to be crowned.

The Bournemouth Daily Echo began its coverage in earnest on May 28, with a Coronation Souvenir edition listing local events.

“Every town and village will give parties and sports, souvenirs and film shows for the young,” said the paper’s front page.

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“Lasting memorials have been planned by many communities – a Coronation Garden at one town, bus shelters at two Dorset villages, children’s corners at others, even a swimming pool at another.”

Every school pupil had already received a commemorative beaker and a packet of chocolate, while all members of local Darby and Joan clubs had been invited to a tea by Bournemouth Women’s Voluntary Service.

On June 1, the paper reported that there were already 270 people camping out along London’s Mall.

That day’s Echo also noted the local people who were to receive Coronation honours. MBEs were to go to William Martin, a magistrate and thatcher in Wimborne, and to Harold Blackburn, chairman of Bournemouth Savings Committee, while the King’s Police Medal was to be awarded to Richard Gill, Hampshire’s assistant chief constable.

The arrival of Coronation Day on June 2 was heralded by peeling bells at St Peter’s Church in Bournemouth town centre.

Later, a congregation of around 3,000 took part in an early morning service at Meyrick Park.

Daphne Cave, a 19-year-old shorthand typist of Holdenhurst Avenue, had been chosen from the town’s youth organisations to read a lesson.

The mayor’s chaplain and rural area dean, the Rev Canon ALE Williams, told the congregation: “People today are very much in danger of becoming professional spectators, watching television, watching football and cricket matches, going to the pictures, listening in to broadcasts…

“If we are content to be mere spectators we are going to fail our young Queen – and fail ourselves as citizens of this great empire.”

He called for people to unite in prayer for their new monarch.

“So give your hearts to your Queen and your prayers to God and this day may well be the beginning of a great and glorious new age,” he said.

Many people stayed indoors that morning, following events at Westminster Abbey through television or radio.

An estimated 40,000 people viewed the Coronation on the town’s 4,000-5,000 TV sets, and 1,000 watched at the Town Hall, where there were two large projection receivers and 23 smaller sets.

The Coronation was a big boost to sales of television sets.

Once the ceremonies were over, 20,000 people joined an afternoon of festivities at King’s Park, which included a deer roast, gymkhana, motorcycling tricks and an athletics meeting.

Later, Christchurch saw youth organisations march through the town before lighting a bonfire at St Catherine’s Hill.

In Bournemouth, there was an hour-long firework display, ending with a setpiece in white depicting the Queen’s head.

The Echo’s diarist of the time, known as Richmond, wrote: “Today, in Bournemouth and the surrounding countryside, I have seen the phlegmatic British throw aside their reserve and behave with an abandon more to be expected from a southern race than from the hardy residents of these northern islands.”

On June 3, an advertisement in the Echo reported: “Southern Radio and Television Company … are proud to be able to announce that ALL the hundreds of television receivers which they have installed gave a faultless picture throughout the excellent transmission given by the BBC.”

By the weekend, it was possible to relive the Coronation on a big screen and in colour, thanks to two rival films rushed into cinemas.

Elizabeth Is Queen, from Associated British-Pathe, was in cinemas on Saturday, January 6.

The next day saw the arrival of A Queen Is Crowned, with narration by Sir Laurence Olivier. Filmed with 18 Technicolor cameras, it was at the town’s Odeon and Gaumont cinemas – providing a fitting end to a week that no one would forget.