Mana Setayesh, Class of 2025, Arts and Sciences

This blogpost was written as part of the 2022 First-Year Writing Seminar, “The Lure of Leisure: A Global History of Modern Tourism,” taught by History graduate student Aimée Plukker. 

On 20 November 1947 Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey. Here we see the front page of the “souvenir programme,” a program booklet given to the guests of the royal wedding as a keepsake. The pamphlet is in color, and depicts the royal coat of arms on the top half. On the sides we see ornate drawings of bells, perhaps to illustrate wedding bells, and flowers to mark the occasion. The text on the booklet reads: “By gracious permission of His Majesty the King” and “the wedding of her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, r.n. Westminster Abbey, 20th November 1947.” Elizabeth was 21 at the time of the wedding while Philip was 26.

Given that the wedding was set to take place in 1947, it was just after the Second World War, which caused some issues for the royal couple. Firstly, Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress. Due to the rations and limited supplies as a result of the war, she had to buy her dress using ration coupons for clothing. Many brides around the country tried to send their coupons to Elizabeth, so she could use these as well. However, this was illegal, and the coupons were returned. Another issue was the attitude of the citizens at the time. The UK had seen a death toll of 384,000 soldiers and 70,000 civilians so it was important to be cognizant of the public and their feelings. It was decided by the King, at the advice of political advisors, that the wedding would be good for morale, but that it should be kept simple. The family invited 2,000 guests to the wedding, but the broadcast on BBC radio is said to have reached 200 million people. This large audience was partly due to the recent development of quality cameras and global broadcasting, by the end of 1947, there were 34,000 TV sets in the UK alone. The royal wedding of Elizabeth and Philip continued to be admired for 73 years in popular imagination, until Philip’s death last year.

Source

The Wedding of Her Royal Highness, 1947, London, Box 11, Folder 15, Gregory E. Montes Urban History and Travel Collection, #8035, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

Bibliography

Staff, BHT. “Watch: Incredible Footage of Queen Elizabeth on Her Wedding Day.” British Heritage, British Heritage, 8 Apr. 2022, https://britishheritage.com/royals/footage-queen-elizabeth-wedding-day.

Staff, BHT. “Queen Bought Her Wedding Dress with WWII Ration Coupons.” British Heritage, British Heritage, 1 Apr. 2022, https://britishheritage.com/queen-wedding-dress-wwii-ration-coupons.

“The Fallen.” The UK Parliment, https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/olympic-britain/crime-and-defence/the-fallen/.

Dunn, Charlotte. “70 Facts about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Wedding.” The Royal Family, 23 Aug. 2018, https://www.royal.uk/70-facts-about-queen-and-duke-edinburghs-wedding.

Elbaum, Rachel. “Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip: The Story of Their Marriage.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Apr. 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/queen-elizabeth-ii-prince-philip-story-their-marriage-n1259697.