Tony Cunnane's Early Years 1935-53

By the start of 1952 my diary entries had started getting much longer, especially on days when I was not at school. I was consciously trying to include more news about current affairs but I still recorded details of the programmes I listened to on the radio - still the main form of home entertainment for most people.

Because I was off school on 31 January 1952 with a bad cold and associated symptoms, I was able to listen on the wireless to a live commentary on the departure of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their Commonwealth Tour. We did not have television and I don't even know if the departure was shown live on TV.

The wireless commentator told how the King and Queen were on the tarmac to wave goodbye and especially mentioned how they were both wrapped up warmly against a biting wind. Mention was made that the King looked better after his recent illness but that he had been determined to be present to see off his daughter and son-in- law.

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It may seem odd that I was confined to bed with a routine bad cold but it was in fact the warmest place to be; there was still a critical coal shortage and we could never afford to keep a fire going all day downstairs. As my diary indicates, snow started falling in Salford at midday, Dad was at work, sister Kathleen at school, and Mum went out to her part-time job in the afternoon.

It's difficult in the 21st Century for people to understand how popular our Royal Family was in the 1950s. For example, the National Anthem was still played at the end of every film show in cinemas and most people dutifully stood to attention at their seats until it finished. There were, of course, always a few who tried to get out of the cinema before the National Anthem started, not, I believe, because they were anti-Royalists, but simply because in some odd way they found it embarrassing to stand in public for the Anthem: most cinemas faded the house lights up either just before or during the playing of the National Anthem.