The Post is grateful to Sam Parnell for supplying this photograph of Launceston celebrations during the 1953 Coronation.

He recollects: “Launceston had a giant fete all over Coronation Park throughout the day and a large children’s tea party in the Town Hall in the afternoon at 4pm.

“There were trestle tables covering the hall floor packed with children. Mr Tony Bawden of Kinghts Studios, Southgate Arch, was moving along the tables taking photos of the celebrations.”

He continued: “The celebrations lasted throughout the whole day and in the evening there was a dance with a band in the park — on the grass below the, then, outdoor swimming pool.

“It was just a terrific day. The kids in the photo were nine or ten years old. I was nine years old.

“The population of Launceston in those days was 4,500, so we knew most people, if not by name, by facial recognition. The weather was good too.”