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Q: What was your role as page to Lord Cholmondley?
Lord Cholmondley was a very senior figure as The Lord Great Chamberlain, and so he was positioned quite close to The Queen. I didn't have a programme but I knew that someone would give me a nod for when my moment came.
It wasn't really a major role. I processed behind the Lord Great Chamberlain when we went into the Abbey holding the coronet. He went off to his senior place round the throne and I trooped off to the peeresses' side of the Abbey. I think all the other peers must have sat with them on their lap because they all stood up and put their coronets on.
I didn't have a very good view, I couldn't actually see a lot from where I was sitting because I was sitting about three inches from off the ground on a step. I can't remember if I had a cushion or not but it wasn't uncomfortable. There were chairs with peeresses sitting on either side so I didn't have much of a view.
Q: How were you chosen?
My father's mother married Lord Cholmondley's younger brother. I don't believe at that time there was a suitable Cholmondley boy who was the right age and the right size for the clothes! I think the clothes must have been used at previous Coronations, the previous one in 1937 for George VI.
Q: Did you have to attend any rehearsals?
We had a rehearsal, either the day before, or two days before, so I knew what I had to do. I just had to go and hand the coronet to the Lord Great Chamberlain at the right moment and return to my seat. There were some other pages sitting on the peers' side who were there too.
I remember two things from the rehearsal. There was a lot of time waiting for things to happen, but rehearsals tend to be like that! One thing I can remember vividly from the rehearsal was that I was actually introduced to Winston Churchill, who must have been prime minister at the time. I remember he was fairly elderly and he was sitting down. He said one or two words to me something like "You're at school, aren't you?". I probably said yes and not much more!
The other thing - I suppose I was a bit bored - was that I discovered the balls on top of the coronet undid, they unscrewed. I was unscrewing one, just fiddling around with it, and suddenly someone gave me the nod and I had to hurriedly screw it back up!
Q: How did you prepare for the day?
I think it was a pretty early start to change into my blue page's uniform. I can remember going to the hairdresser and having my hair brushed and sprayed. I was at prep boarding school and I got out of school in order to do this. Being page to Lord Cholmondley was a one-off, a day's performance and there were no Royal duties attached.
Q: What did you know about The Queen before Coronation Day?
As a boy of eleven you have a sort of image and a vision of what a queen is but you don't really have any knowledge of what a Head of State does. You have this rather glamorous image of a young queen and a handsome husband who had arrived after the death of the old king. I must have seen her picture in the magazines around at the time, which my grandmother pointed out to me.
Q: How did you feel about attending the Coronation?
I was happy and honoured to do it. I was very much aware of this being a very important occasion for the country and also there was a great thing about television. Television for the first time I think was allowed in the Abbey. It was black and white and quite grainy. I remember being very aware that it was all televised, that this was something new. It was pretty unobtrusive. I certainly wasn't aware of the cameras, not in the same way as one is now. They must have had some pretty strong lighting because otherwise you wouldn't have been able to see anything. The atmosphere was like watching live theatre, very difficult to bottle.
Q: What can you remember about the service?
I was in a prominent place, close to the action. One felt very much at the centre of things and you realised it was all going on around you. I remember the Lord Great Chamberlain was standing very close to the throne, with the Lord Great Chamberlain wand. I remember it being a very serious occasion because it was in church and therefore it had a fairly sombre mood about it.
But there was wonderful music and lots of cheering when The Queen was crowned, and that was uplifting. It was enormously colourful, with all the robes and chains of office; very ornate, people dressed in their finery. All the peeresses were dressed in their ball gowns - lots of them had tiaras - and it was a very glittering occasion.
It was a big thing in my life. At the time I can't remember it being overwhelming in any sense, I was aware of the occasion but I wasn't overwhelmed by it.
What I didn't see was all the parades before hand, when the procession left Buckingham Palace. We were congregating, ready to line up and make our move into the Abbey, waiting for The Queen to arrive.
Q: How did you feel wearing the page's uniform?
I wasn't embarrassed about wearing stockings and knee breeches - it was the uniform you dressed in, so you dressed in it! I wasn't conscious of anyone looking at me. I suspect they were looking at more important people!
Q: Do you have any mementoes from the Coronation year?
I've still got the chair that my grandmother sat on, her Coronation chair. As a peeress you could take them back home from Westminster Abbey. It has E II R on the back, a plush-velvet chair. I've got one from that Coronation and the previous Coronation in 1937. The chairs aren't very strong because they were a one-off. And I have a Coronation medal too.
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