IT STARTED with tens of thousands of flag-wavers on the streets and ended with a Hampden roar…
Few faces are as famous as Her Majesty The Queen’s – and as she celebrates her Platinum Jubilee this week, will she remember her first ever visit to the city after taking the crown?
It was June 1953, and she received a warm welcome from Glasgow people – and those in the surrounding towns and villages of Lanarkshire and beyond – when she made her first post-coronation visit.
So warm, in fact, that police and army cordons in George Square were broken “in the tumult” accompanying the event.
“Thousands of people – men, women and children – flowed across the centre of the Square as the Royal couple arrived at the City Chambers,” we reported on June 25, 1953. There were many fainting cases in the sun and heat, and these were brought to the front of the crowd and attended to by ambulance men.
“Carrying a bouquet which had been presented to her, the Queen – who was calm in spite of the obvious anxiety and struggle by the police and Army to hold back the throngs – walked quietly along the front row of the guard. As she reached the end…a corner of the streaming throng…were within two feet of Her Majesty. The Queen just smiled however and continued with her inspection.”
Our newspaper also carried a recipe competition to mark the occasion, asking readers what they would serve to Her Majesty should she pop in during her coronation state visit, with “an Ayrshire housewife, the wife of a Glasgow policeman and a Kilsyth woman” triumphing with their dishes. Margaret Jay won £10, for Sole Cernobbis With Sauce; Mary Moir won £5 for Creams of Chicken; and Matilda White won £3 for Cold Salmon Souffle.
The tour took in Paisley’s Scottish Veterans’ Garden City and visited the home of Mr and Mrs Wilson, where the Queen asked Mrs Wilson if she liked her new gas cooker.
Our photographers were there to capture the Queen’s every move during the visit, from posing with a bouquet presented to her by the ex-servicemen and their wives who occupied the houses of the Scottish Veterans Garden City at Oldhall, to her regal wave from the balcony of Hamilton Town Hall.
READ MORE: 'It was the people's day' - memories of Pope's visit to Glasgow in 1982
Children lined the streets with Union flags and more than 60,000 people attended a rally in Hampden Park in which she watched performances by the Scouts, a youth choir and displays of gymnastics and dancing.
Buglers representing the 21 youth organisations present in the stadium heralded the Queen’s entrance and “a youthful, but deafening Hampden Roar” greeted the royal car as it entered the track.
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