Gran unearths 1953 coronation news

IT WAS in the days when a pack of cigarettes cost 10c and a chair R2.50.

Newspapers were printed in black and white and 17-year-old Merle Smith kept her copy of the Daily News – full of pictures and reports of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation – to draw ideas from the royal fashion for her upcoming wedding.

Yesterday, in the midst of the queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations, the 77-year-old Pinetown grandmother dug out her 1953 copy of the Daily News – dated June 4 – which included lavish coverage of the coronation, and reminisced about a time gone by.

“I have been engrossed in the TV coverage of the celebrations and began telling my grandchildren about the coronation and the 60-year-old newspaper but they didn’t be- lieve me, so I fished it out to show them,” she said.

On the front page were scenes of the royal family during the 26-year-old queen’s coronation.

Back then, the pictures of the event were sent to Johannesburg by Comet - the first commercial jetliner – then flown to Durban, only appearing in local newspapers two days after the coronation.

In his featured illustration, acclaimed Daily News cartoonist Jock Leyden suggested that the coronation would eclipse all other world news.

However, while the historic event did monopolise five pages of the paper, the then Natal University made headlines for training the largest group of non-European students.

Smith said the newspaper was one of many items of royal memorabilia she hoped to give to her grandchildren.

When Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer got married in 1981, the dressmaker put her sewing skills to work by creating a replica of the wedding gown.

Having watched the Royal Family from afar all her life, Smith said she and her husband Ray intended to travel to London for the first time this year.