Marching in the rain for the Coronation, 1953

I was on the coronation parade so I didn’t get to watch it (on television). I was on that marching round. It was a horrible day. It rained all the way round the 13 ½ route. Plus back to where we started it was 16 miles in total. Marching with a rifle on the slope and it rained all the way. We trained months for that. You had to do all the training bearing in mind we were 12 (soldiers) deep. And you had to train so when you came to the arches (along Pall Mall?) you had to change into 3 groups of 4 and come back together again. It all went well on the day. We slept in Earl’s Court, underground in the garages; on straw sacks. Not very pleasant. We wore ‘blues’ (jackets), white belts, and white gloves.