UK marks Queen’s coronation in London

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Queen Elizabeth II (L) and members of the Royal family are seen during the service to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the coronation. AFP photo

Queen Elizabeth II marked the 60th anniversary of her coronation on June 4 with a service at Westminster Abbey filled with references to the rainy day in 1953 when she was crowned.

More than 2,000 guests crammed into the abbey for the service, attended by all the senior members of the royal family including Prince William and his heavily pregnant wife Catherine. The bells of the abbey pealed as the queen’s Bentley drew up and she stepped out into the bright sunshine to enter the church where as a 27-year-old she became queen of Britain and head of the Commonwealth. The 86-year-old monarch, in an oyster-colored outfit, was accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, 91, who was at her side despite pulling out of a public engagement on June 3 because of ill health.

Also placed on the altar was the Ampulla, the gold, eagle-shaped flask containing the holy oil with which the queen was anointed at the coronation.

Prince Charles, the heir to the throne who was just four when his mother was crowned, sat next to his parents on the front row, alongside his second wife Camilla.

Next to them sat William and Catherine, who wore a daisy lace dress and a peach silk jacket by British designer Jenny Packham. Charles recalled last year that the queen practiced wearing the crown around Buckingham Palace in the weeks before her coronation, even popping in to say hello to her children during their bath time.

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave the address, while Prime Minister David Cameron and Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma gave readings.

 The celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the coronation have been more low-key than the festivities held last year to mark the day the queen took the throne in 1952.