A ROSEWOOD resident recently came across a collection of black and white photographs illustrating the floats in a parade down John Street, Rosewood to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II that took place on June 2, 1953.
The owner of the photographs, Karen, describes them as “treasured” and says they were taken by the late Albert Mogensen, who was well known in Rosewood as a photographer. Karen recently acquired the photos from a friend.
“The photos intrigued me so I started to do some research and found out that they were taken in Rosewood at the 1953 Coronation celebration parade,” she said.
Karen wanted to share them … “as I, like many other families, want pay my respects to Queen Elizabeth II”.
“My findings on the Coronation Parade were that various organisations from Rosewood attended a meeting in the School of Arts building to make the plans for the celebration.
“An appeal was made to the public for financial assistance which was successful and all of the children who attended the celebration received two free bottles of soft drink and two ice creams.
“The parade began at the Anglican Church in John Street Rosewood and proceeded down John Street, along Railway Street to the showgrounds, where the celebrations continued.
“I was told that the lady on one of the floats was the Queen from the Coronation Ball.”
• Rosewood was just one of the Australian towns and cities to celebrate the occasion. It was also celebrated by every country in the Commonwealth with a day of pageantry and ritual that marked the beginning of a long and historic reign of 70 years and 214 days, the longest of any British Monarch.
