Queen Elizabeth II Souvenirs Treasured
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If you're like me, you are following the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II daily. I'm amazed at the pomp and circumstance and adherence to tradition, protocol and duty that the people of the United Kingdom embrace and celebrate. The UK does ceremonies so well.
Of course, I've always followed the Royals and their public life since it makes headlines and includes great successes and dramatic failures, played out for the world to see. And I've always admired the Queen for her respect for tradition, protocol, duty and hats!
After all, when Princess Elizabeth was born it was not expected that she would become Queen. She was crowned due to the shocking abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson in 1936, which caused an international sensation.
Elizabeth's father, King George VI (second son of King George V), then ascended to the throne in 1936. Now that's life-changing drama that you can't help but follow. Elizabeth II, as the oldest child of the king, then became Queen after her father died at the relatively young age of 56.
Her Coronation Day on June 2, 1953, was the first ever to be televised for the world to enjoy. Naturally, that increased the public's interest and allowed many more people to get involved in the pageantry and tradition.
I actually have two souvenirs from Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Day. These two lovely embroidered, fine cotton handkerchiefs, dating to 1953, were possibly acquired by someone at the event or may have been sold locally in fine department stores, I'm not sure.
I just know that the lovely treasures were in my mother's handkerchief drawer (which I still have) at the time of mom's death in 1985. They are in perfect condition and have never been used. My mother was married in 1953 and always followed news of the queen but she never traveled to England.
One of these lovely souvenirs has a detailed image of a Royal Guard dressed in the iconic bearskin cap, scarlet tunic and blue pants, standing in front of Buckingham Palace and holding a rifle.
The other one depicts the jeweled crown, along with the initials ER, and year of 1953. The ER stands for Elizabeth Regina (Regina meaning queen in Latin). Many times the queen's symbol or cypher is shown EIIR, since she was Elizabeth II, but this handkerchief lacks the II.
This cypher is officially known as the Royal Cypher and is unique to each monarch, according to metro.com.uk. This cypher is now expected to change to CIIIR, since her son Charles will become Charles III and the Latin changes to Rex for king.
Checking eBay as I write this column, I see that there are a total of 11 coronation handkerchiefs with bids as high as $110 for a colored pictorial version. None are just exactly like mine. But I'm not selling mine.
I also have biographies and books on the Queen and the Royal Family. None of these are brand new though I imagine new ones will be out any day, if they aren't already.
I still hope to travel to London one day too, since my expected trip a few years back never happened due to the pandemic. However, I won't be seeing the queen anymore, as King Charles III's wife is now known as the Queen Consort, due to his divorce from Diana.
Since his coronation won't happen for months due to national mourning, we will have another royal pageant to look forward to. Cheers!