Love in the time of coronation

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This article was published 04/05/2023 (905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marjorie Laycock was far away from home, having been chosen to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in London in 1953, when she met her prince.

Laycock, of Foxwarren, Man., met Art Woitte, who was studying at United College in Winnipeg, on board the Empress of France on May 25, 1953, as it steamed toward England. They were to be part of the crowd at the Coronation on June 2.

Four years to the day of that meeting, the couple became wife and husband; their 66th wedding anniversary is just weeks away.

“It doesn’t seem that long ago, but it was,” Marjorie Woitte said this week by phone from Windsor, Ont., where the couple live.

“It was an absolutely wonderful trip. It was just like a dream. I was only 17. It was something I never would have dreamed of doing for a girl from a little farm in Manitoba.

“And I met Art.”

The pair were part of two separate youth groups that went to the coronation.

Marjorie was part of the Weston’s Goodwill Tour. Food-business magnate Garfield Weston paid for 50 young women from across Canada to attend the coronation, during a seven-week trip, to strengthen ties between Canada and Great Britain.

Art was chosen for the 1953 Commonwealth Youth Movement. It was started by an English teacher, who had moved to Canada, so youth could be part of the Coronation of George VI in 1937. It and continued as a way for students to meet people from other Commonwealth countries.

Art said the trip “was a lifetime ago.”

“But it is still very vivid. We were set up to see (the Queen) on bleachers set up along the Mall.”

Art said he can’t remember what he paid, but he knew his trip wasn’t totally free. He said the guys “were all dressed in red blazers, ties and shirts.”

Marjorie said she was chosen by her principal.

“I was called to the principal’s office and he (asked), ‘Would you like to go to the coronation?’ I was dumbfounded.

“There were only three of us from Manitoba: two from the city and one from the country. I represented the country.”

Art said, “A mutual friend said his girlfriend’s sister was going over. He said keep your eyes open and gave me her name.”

But he didn’t realize until he saw the 50 young women at a reception on the ship that not only had the Weston family bought matching luggage for them, but also matching outfits.

“They not only were all wearing the same colour, but also matching jackets and coats. I found her, but not until the next day.”

When the ship docked in England, the two groups went off in other directions.

Art’s group was in separate bleachers along the coronation carriage route. later, they travelled elsewhere in England and to Scotland and Wales.

Marjorie’s group watched the coronation parade from special bleachers set up on Oxford Street. They stayed in the country longer, visiting Harewood House with Princess Mary, the new Queen’s aunt, as their tour guide, before going to Paris.

Upon her return to Canada, Marjorie began her first year of university at United College, where Art was already studying. They rekindled their friendship and, over the next few years, love blossomed. They married, Art became a minister, they had three children, and they have been living in Windsor since the 1970s.

Now 87, Marjorie said she doesn’t know if the two of them will watch the coronation of King Charles early Saturday.

“I said 4 a.m., isn’t a problem. I might be up anyway,” she said.

“But I feel sorry for Charles. He has been waiting for so long.”

As for Art: “I already got up for a coronation at 3 a.m., I don’t know if I will do it again.”

Meanwhile, Ken Forbes and Audrey Adair, of rural Manitoba, were 17 when they were chosen to go to the 1953 coronation as part of a three-month trip on behalf of 4-H.

Adair, who became Audrey Jasper a few years later, said her teacher/principal at Pipestone High School encouraged her to apply for the trip through 4-H.

“I was chosen as one of the four girls and four boys to be interviewed,” she said. “I went to Winnipeg. We stayed at the St. Regis Hotel and the next day we went to the legislature to be interviewed by 14 people around a big round table. We then had lunch and when we came back I happened to be the lucky one and Ken was the lucky guy.”

But Jasper admitted “I cried all night” the evening before she got on a train to head to Montreal and then board the ship to England.

“Going to Winnipeg was a big deal then, but to go to Montreal by myself and then England? I was only 17.”

Before she knew it, she was in the crowd of well-wishers attending the Queen’s coronation.

“We were in front of Buckingham Palace,” she said. “We got up at 3 a.m. and we were in the bleachers at 6 a.m. and we were given two bag lunches, one for breakfast and one for later.

“We could see the Queen come out in her carriage and later come back. A few minutes later, she was right in front of us waving to the crowd from the balcony. It was quite a thrill. I credit my teacher for telling me to go home (to Virden) to fill out the form.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

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