'The Queen's coronation was the most nerve-wracking day of my life'

For many, the coronation represented the beginning of a new age. It was a time for optimism and innovation that the press termed ‘the new Elizabethan era’.
Photographer Cecil Beaton attended the ceremony, along with 8,000 other guests. He sat in a balcony close to the pipes of the great organ, recording his impression of the pageant in animated prose and black ink sketches. After the ceremony, he returned to the palace to make final preparations for the official portrait sitting.
This picture of the Queen with her six maids of honour became one of the defining images of the day. In selecting six maids of honour instead of pages to bear her velvet train throughout the coronation ceremony, the Queen followed the precedent of Queen Victoria.
One of the maids was Lady Mary Baillie Hamilton, of Scottish descent, now Lady Mary Russell, of Combe Manor, who moved to Berkshire in 1965 with her husband David. She says she has two overriding memories of the day – looking at the 27-year-old Elizabeth as she sat on the throne and going out on to the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
“Seeing the Queen, sitting on the throne, wearing the white dress, she looked young and so vulnerable, with a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. That is one memory that has always stayed with me.
“The other was going out on to the balcony. It was extraordinary, wonderful, so very exciting to be there, waving at the huge crowds.”
Lady Mary was just 19, the youngest of the six, when she was picked for a role in the momentous state occasion, but she says she is not really sure how it came about.
“I received this letter, asking me to be a maid of honour. It was addressed to me, care of my parents. I was absolutely gobsmacked. My parents had known the late King and Queen Mother. My father was a Scottish peer and he had known the Queen Mother from her younger days there. They were personal acquaintances.
“I had never met the Queen. I think I had met her parents, but only to curtsy to.”
Remembering the day, Lady Mary says she was wracked with nerves, despite the intensive rehearsals they had gone through with the Duke of Norfolk.
“We were trained, taught, almost like guardsman. We were gathered together six or eight times and put through our paces, practising at the abbey.
“Our dresses, like the Queen’s gown, were designed by Norman Hartnell. They were beautiful, but not very comfortable to wear. They were quite tight around the arms.”
Very much like bridesmaids, their roles was to deal with the train and make sure the queen didn’t have any wardrobe malfunctions.
And did all that practice pay off, despite the uncomfortable dresses?
“Yes. nothing went wrong. We had to get the Queen out of the carriage at the abbey, and then back in again in one piece, and the back out again at Buckingham Palace. Our role was absolutely defined, to deal with the train [the 21ft ermine-trimmed velvet Purple Robe of Estate]. It was incredibly heavy, it felt like it weighed tons.
“It was clockwork precision you could say, we were so well rehearsed.
“I was up very early as I was being picked up about 6 o’clock in the morning to be taken to the abbey. And then we had a very long time to wait in a little room. But we had a radio to listen to and find out what was going on. We actually heard about Hillary conquering Everest while we were in there, and we were all very excited about that.
“We did not really have the opportunity to speak to the Queen, it was all too busy. And then it was over. I went home – my parents had taken a house in London as we lived in the Scottish borders – got out of my dress and had dinner, before going out with some friends. We made a party and went back to Buckingham Palace and joined the crowds. It was fun and nobody recognised me.”
Surprisingly, Lady Mary says that life went on pretty much as normal after the coronation, despite the huge amount of interest in the group, particularly from the press, as soon as the names of the maids were announced six months before. Everything from their wardrobes to their social lives was reported on, as six of the most glamorous and eligible women in the country.
“I did get recognised occasionally, which was strange, and there was still some interest from the newspapers, but life didn’t really change.
“There was a lot of interest for the [golden] jubilee, but we’re getting on a bit now, although we are all still alive."
In an interview with the Daily Mail last year, The Lady Glenconner, Lady Anne Coke at the time, said that they were seen as the Spice Girls of their day – so do they all get together to talk about old times?
“We do all meet up occasionally, but we are quite spread out, so it is not very often.”
Image: The Queen with (from left) Lady Moyra Hamilton (now Lady Moyra Campbell), Lady Anne Coke (now The Rt Hon The Lady Glenconner), Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill (now Lady Rosemary Muir), Lady Mary Baillie Hamilton (now Lady Mary Russell), Lady Jane Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby (now The Rt Hon The Baroness Willoughby de Eresby) and Lady Jane Vane-Tempest-Stewart (now The Rt Hon The Lady Rayne). Photograph courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London