Jamaica joined the world in welcoming Queen Elizabeth II. Special guests gathered to witness the Governor read the proclamation. It was a very significant moment in world history.

Published: Saturday, February 9, 1952

Proclamation in Jamaica

Thousands stand in rain at ceremony

PROCLAMATION of the accession of Queen Elizabeth the Second was made locally by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Hugh Foot, K.C.M.G., from a dais south of the statue of Queen Victoria, South Parade, at 11 o’clock yesterday morning.

The Governor spoke from a specially built dais and with him on the platform were those leaders of State who were associated with him in signing the Proclamation “as persons suited and fit” to do so.

It was a solemn moment, and its significance was obviously a thing of great awareness for the crowd of thousands who stood patiently in the rain, which increased from a fine mist to a heavy drizzle as the time for the proclamation approached.

In this typical English weather-grey-clouded sky and cold, misty rain – the people on top of the Parish Church clock-tower, on the fences of the Park, on the piazzas and parapets and in the street, stood in absolute silence while the Governor read the Proclamation and the guns of the Boys) Welch Fusiliers boomed out a Royal Salute of 21 guns to mark the beginning of a new reign.

The fact that a King “of Happy Memory” had died to make the new reign necessary was obviously ever present with the crowd, who were mostly in mourning.

There were blacks and whites and purples everywhere, and the people who , the approaches to the statue of “Missis Queen” while awaiting the Proclamation of her great-great-grand-daughter, were solemn with and thoughts of her great-grand-son.

The ceremony

For the second time this week, Kingston came to a standstill for the ceremony. As the hour approached, cars in the vicinity stopped, and the crowds that had  gathered on all the approaches down King Street, along South Parade to East and West Parade, up both sides of Seymour Place as far as North Parade pressed against a phalanx of policemen to catch a glimpse of the arrival of the chief dignitaries.

From early morning, a squad of police marched to the western end of the ceremonial area and took up positions. Detachments of the Welch Fusiliers took up positions down King Street and in Seymour Place while a detachment of the Band and Drums of the Fusiliers was in position by the dais, which had been erected for the occasion between Thursday and yesterday morning.

Detachments of the Women’s Royal Army Groups took up position at the eastern end of the ceremonial area. In chairs at the, west and east of the Victoria Statue leading members of the State representatives of Foreign States and their wives were accommodated.

At 10:25, His Worship the Mayor, Mr Ken Hill, MHR, accompanied by the Town Clerk and Councillors, walked from his Chambers to South Parade, and for the first time since morning, the crowd cheered.

The Mayor went to his seat on the dais.

At 10:30, a detachment of the Jamaica Battalion, preceded by the Jamaica Military Band, approached the area from the east. The band took up position in King Street and the Battalion, cheered all the way, came to attention across South Parade right in front of the dais. The colour bearer was immediately facing the statue, with the Band and Drum corps of the Fusiliers drawn up in V-formation before them. Between this time and 10:40, other leading persons arrived: the Chief Justice and his Puisne Judges, the Bishop of Jamaica, accompanied by his chaplain, the Rev. J.L. McPherson, and members of the Privy and Executive Councils.

The Governor arrives

At 10:55, His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by Lady Foot and attended by Mr M. Barker Benfield, A.D.C., and Lieut, Donald F. Pringle, extra-A.D.C., arrivedl through Seymour Place and were met by Brigadier Cosby Jackson, M.C., and Mr Walter Calver, Commissioner of Police.

On his arrival, the Band played the Royal Salute, while the Governor in black uniform and plumed hat took his place on the Proclamation dais.

As the colours were raised, from the Salute, the Band and Drum Corps of the Fusiliers played a Royal fanfare. With the hands of the clock indicating two minutes to 11 o’clock, the Governor stepped to the microphone and read the Proclamation in a loud and clear voice.

The Hon. Alexander Bustamante, leader of the elected Government, was unavoidably absent owing to indisposition, and so were the Hon. Sir Harold Allan, O.B.E. and the Hon. Isaac Barrant, while the Hon. Joseph Malcolm was on leave from his official duties. The Hon. Clifford Campbell, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was also to have been on the dais, did not attend.

When he was through, “God Save the Queen” was again played, and with the crowd standing to attention and the uniformed men at salute, a great silence fell, broken only by the booming of the 21-gun salute falling on the rain-drenched air.

It was then 11:04. At 11:12 the guns fell silent, and the Band again played the Royal Salute. As it ended, the Governor and his party left. The 15-minute ceremony was over. A new reign had officially begun. The various units dispersed and the crowd took its place again in the flowing stream of the city’s life.

Swearing-in At King’s House

Immediately after the ceremony at South Parade, the Governor proceeded to King’s House and there 18 members  took the oath of Allegiance to the Privy and Executive Councils and members of the Judiciary.

The Oath of His Excellency was administered by the Honourable Kenneth O’Connor, Chief Justice.

Those who took the Oath were:

The Acting Colonial Secretary, the Hon. John O’Regan, the Acting Attorney General, the Hon. Joseph Leslie Cundall, Q.C. the Financial Secretary and Treasurer, the Hon. Robert Newton, the Hon. Sir Alfred D’Costa, the Hon. Charles Rudolph Williams, C.B.E., the Hon, Sir Robert Brian Barker, O.B.E, the Hon. Theodore Rowland Williams the Hon. Sir Harold Allan, Kt. O.B.E.

For feedback: contact the Editorial Department at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com.