| AdminHistory | The Coronation Committee was appointed in October 1936, following a resolution made by the General Purpose Committee that a special committee be formed to consider the manner of the celebrations the city of Birmingham should host in commemoration to coincide with the coronation ceremony of the new king on 12 May 1937. The committee was then to report back to the City Council at the earliest possible date, detailing its recommendations, and the likely expenditure, which was predicted to be £15,000. The programme would include outdoor and indoor events such as firework displays and illuminations, music concerts, civic processions and a commemorative church service. Gifts were also to be given to schoolchildren and the elderly, as well as £1 gifts for children born on the day of the Coronation. Finally, the expenditure total would include the production of souvenir programmes, coronation-themed gifts and general advertising, as well as other publicity deemed appropriate to advertise the forthcoming celebrations.
By the time the committee had met in January 1937, the abdication crisis that had been simmering since its appointment the previous October had come to a head. By August 1936 photographs appeared in the press of King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson together on a Mediterranean cruise; they had met at a house party in 1931. Once news of the affair became open knowledge, the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, asked Edward to conduct the affair more discreetly and try to persuade Mrs Simpson not to carry through divorce proceedings against her second husband. Edward refused to accept Baldwin's suggestions, and on 10 December 1936 was obliged, after much negotiation, to sign an Instrument of Abdication. On 12 December 1936 Edward's brother was proclaimed King George VI. Edward, now Duke of Windsor, left the country to live in Austria.
The main committee minutes do not contain any details of the impending abdication crisis. In any case George VI's coronation remained scheduled as Edward's was for 12 May 1937; the overall impression, in Birmingham at least, was business as usual. The main committee minutes for 22 January 1937 are, however, simply entitled 'Committee Formed to Consider the Coronation Celebrations', without naming the new king; however, the enclosed reports of the seven sub-committees for that date do name the new king, George VI. It is unclear when the committee was disbanded, although we can assume that it met one last time to tie up any miscellaneous business that had arisen following the coronation, as in the case of the Centenary Celebrations Committee 1937 - 1939 (see BCC/1/CJ). |