'It was spine tingling'

The choristers at the Coronation are now in their eighties, but recall vividly the day they sang for The Queen, as Andrew Green discovers

- Andrew Green

FEBRUARY 6, 1952. Young Malcolm Tanner was playing football at his Bristol school. In the far distance,' he recalls, 'a teacher was making his way slowly towards us. He had words with our games master, who then came over and said: "Sorry boys, we've got to go in. The King's died." I have to say we were very annoyed at having to stop playing.'

At Westminster Abbey Choir School, James Wilkinson was in a Latin lesson when 'we noticed the flag on Victoria Tower in the Palace of Westminster was at half mast. Then the headmaster informed us the King had died. My first reaction was one of excitement that there'd be new postage stamps and coins to collect.'

David Driscoll attended the King's lying-instate, making the pilgrimage to Westminster Hall together with fellow choristers from St Paul's Cathedral. 'I remember the solemn sight of soldiers stationed around the catafalque, heads bowed-and the silence. Extraordinary, with so many members of the public filing through.

Each of these then choristers was to sing at the 1953 coronation, together with about 180 other boys, some selected from cathedral, chapel and church choirs that were affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), including Mr Tanner and Dennis Whitehead, then at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. Mr Whitehead still treasures his letter of invitation. 'My parents were over the moon.'

News of selection often turned choristers into local celebrities, but Graham Neal's good tidings had to be kept under wraps. 'My mother couldn't wait to tell the world, but it all had to be very hush-hush,' relates the member of All Saints Church, Eastleigh, Hampshire. 'I was at an age when my voice might have broken by the time of the coronation. What an anti-climax that would have been!'