July 1953 School Magazine

July, 1953

:Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

J!risbane Girl•.' Grammar School Magazine

July, 1953

were a strange sight as they prepared for the day. By 8 a.m. the Foot Guards, which lined both sides of the Mall, started to arrive. They were made up of Grenadier, Coldstream, Irish, Welsh and Scots, and marched into the Mall from Wellington Barracks in a stream which filled the street from the Palace io Admiralty Arch. Every man in his scarlet tunic, h is grey cloak over it, bearskin on his head; fixed bayonets. Each looked iden'tical with his neighbour, and they moved like machines into their posltions. They were in them by 8.30 a.m. - and remained there like tin soldiers till 5 p .m.! At mid-day ihey went in small military groups to Barracks for lunch , but I'll bet not one man was away for more than 45 minutes. There they stood all day. Between 6 and 9 a.m. it was rain- ing a bit, but cleared between 9 and 10.30, while the actual procession passed us. By ll a.m. it was pouring, the Guards put on their cloaks again, and stood without batting an eyelid in pouring rain from ll a.m. till after 3 p.m. At that time ihey were ordered to remove their cloaks for the Procession was getting near. And as though one had turned off a tap, the rain stopped, the sun shone on their scarlet tunics for a few minutes, and it remained fine for the entire time the procession was passing-in fact, till 7.30 p.m., when the Queen appeared on the balcony. At about 3.30 p.m. the full morning procession was pre- ·ceded by the Colonial Contingents, the Commonwealth Con- tingents, the Royal Air Force Contingent, Army Contingent, Royal Navy and Royal Mar~nes contingents. These were all marching 12 abreast with fixed bayonets, and together there were 29,000 troops in the full procession. It took nearly 30 minutes for these Contingents alone to march past us , and as we looked, as · far as one could see towards the Palace or to- wards Admiralty Arch, for all that time, there was one great sea of marching men and women (a few). The marching was perfect, so that along that Royal Mile there was just one regu- lar swing of marching men. We were five rows from the front in our stand, which was -about 6 ft. above road level. The elevation gave us a mag- nificent overall view. The uniforms were splendid, the variety tremendous, and the horses quite wonderful. And a ll that went by with a continuous line of scarlet tunics and bearskins of ihe Foot Guards flanking it , as they lined the procession route. Jt was all finished by about 5 p.m., and half an hour later there was the fly past of jet planes-about 150 of them, and ihe Queen and Royal party on the Pa lace Balcony, which we could see in the distance. It was a wonderful day, and ended perfectly for me in 20

the crowd near the Palace where the Queen and Duke came to wave to us. The British are an amazing race, and the position of the Queen as one who unites millions of people in the world is quite unique and wonderful. The strength, the magnificence, and the calmness of the British must have made an everlasting impression upon every person in London yes- terday-colon ial or foreign. THE INSECT ORCHESTRA Soon after the plans for this year's concert were begun, Miss Frederick suggested that the second half of the programme ~might consist of an adoption of Tchaikowski's Nutcracker Suite based c:in Walt Disney's film, Fantasia. The Nutcracker Suite is a fairy story composed of episodes of a dream, forming a suite of dances accompanied by the orchestra. Walt Disney p resented this orchestra as a group of insects-beetles, crickets, dragon flies, caterpillars, ants, spiders, grasshoppers and but- terflies. Naturally our scope was less extensive than his, and even with the tallest, fattest and smallest girls in the School at our disposal, our ,choice was limited to the simpler insects- grasshoppers, mantises, beetles, spiders and bees. We were to make all the actions of playing our instruments in dumb show, while recorded music formed the real accompaniment for the ballet. Naturally many hours had to be spent practising, for great care was needed to produce the necessary effect. Miss Fred- erick trained the orchestra with meticulous care, and our success was due, a great extent, to her efforts.

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