Evening Standard/Hulton Royals Collection/Getty Images
King George VI’s coffin is carried throughout the streets of London ahead of being transported to Windsor Castle for his funeral on February 15, 1952.
As the United Kingdom mourns Queen Elizabeth II, just a minority will consider first-hand what lifestyles used to be just like the closing time the rustic buried a monarch.
Images taken in 1952 following the dying of the Queen’s father, King George VI, expose simply how a lot the rustic — and the arena — have modified.
Just like these days, crowds poured into central London in February of that yr, hoping to catch a glimpse of George VI’s funeral procession. But whilst the time-honored ceremonies stay a lot the similar, the folks staring at them glance moderately other.
Back then, nearly everybody within the streets used to be White and extra officially dressed, possibly dressed in a hat and overcoat. Food rationing used to be nonetheless in position following World War II, and recollections of its struggling have been contemporary in folks’s minds. Only about 1.5 million properties had a tv set, so for lots of Britons this might be their sole likelihood past newspaper and radio stories to witness occasions. Some at the thronged streets of the funeral procession path held mirrors aloft in an try to catch a glimpse over fellow mourners’ heads.
When the Queen’s coffin traveled from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall on Wednesday, there used to be a sea of smartphones above the group of folks. The faces have been extra numerous and lots of have been in informal garments, some dressed in Union Jack-themed apparel. Modern generation will convey the ceremonies are living to tens of millions extra around the globe.
What hasn’t modified is the sense of historical past being made — and folks’s need to be part of that procedure
