Interest in monarchy started as a child

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I remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth ll, at least I think I do.

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If so, I must have seen it in a newsreel at the theatre in Port Stanley as few people had televisions in 1953.

My Uncle Art, who owned the Union Grange Plantation, was a staunch monarchist and could have well afforded one. He hailed from Yorkshire and had the cross of St. George and the Canadian Red Ensign painted on the doors of his horse stables.

But Art preferred art and collected paintings. My Aunt Lillian, who would live to be 105 years old would have probably preferred baseball.

At any rate I’m on my third monarch, King George VI being on the throne when I was born.

I’m rather proud to have served the RCAC (Army Cadets) long enough to wear a king’s crown on my beret, having found one from George’s era.

The crowns that appear on the headdress of the Canadian military at present are the smaller queen’s crown and Royal Cyphers stamped on artillery pieces date from Victoria to the present. I’ve been looking for years for one made under the short reign of Edward Vlll who abdicated the throne.

Charles’s coronation seemed distinctly low-key compared to that of his mother, I suspect that is by design. The new king is no fogey, he knows that while his people may still revere the monarchy and hold with tradition like no other on the face of the earth, a lot of them are skint. On the other hand Charles, for all the attendant pomp and ceremony, is as modern a leader as can be found.

For years, instead of paying lip service like a politician, he has used his immense endorsement potential to further progress on causes like global warming and his late father’s immensely successful involvement in the World Wildlife Foundation.

Charles does what the monarchy has always done, he serves. He has served as a naval officer, is colonel of the Parachute Regiment, having gone through jump school and is, like his brother and two sons, a helicopter pilot. He is a practised diplomat and on good terms with most of the world’s leaders. And then there’s the Commonwealth which he strives to hold together.

Between  Australia and ourselves alone we are more than twice the size of the U.S. with a tenth the population.

Royal houses rarely make war on one another which is probably not surprising since the First World War wiped most of them out. The ones that are left, it seems to me, transcend politics.

Politicians come and go but monarchies, especially in smaller countries, often hold people’s affection and trust.

gordchristmas@outlook.com