Coronation dress on display in Cathedral

The dress will be that worn by Lady Moyra Campbell, and it will be displayed in St Columb’s Cathedral on Friday, June 22, from 11am to 4pm and again on Saturday, June 23, from 10.30am to 4pm.

The dress was designed and made by Norman Hartnell who also made the Queen’s Coronation dress and the dresses for the senior female members of the Royal Family, including the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, for the event.

The dress will be displayed to raise funds for several charities which are supported by Lady Moyra: The NSPCC, ISPCC, The NI Cancer Fund for Children, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Children’s Cancer Ward, Crumlin and the Western Area Early Years Cross Border Training Project.

Recalling the Coronation in an interview for last week’s celebrations, Lady Moyra Campbell, one of six maids of honour to the Queen, revealed she had kept her Norman Hartnell gown, white gloves and tiara as souvenirs of the day, and used them to raise money for charities helping children.

“I was terribly lucky to be invited to be one of the maids of honour to carry the Queen’s train,” she said, adding it was one of the “most thrilling days of a lifetime”.

Asked what the highlights of the day were for her, she said: “The amazing feeling in the abbey, the incredible prayerfulness throughout and the sight of all those crowds who had been waiting in appalling weather all night. Some of them had been there overnight, others had been there from early the day before. The rain was teeming down and yet there was this joyful feeling and the abbey was full of people from all over the globe.”

The Maids of Honour had a rehearsal to practise holding the Queen’s velvet and ermine train, which had six silk handles.

“We met the coach on arrival, from then on, we were holding the train because it was very long,” said Lady Moyra. The mistress of the robes, the Queen’s senior female servant, was in charge of us. She had to officiate when the train came off and the Queen had this very simple white linen dress put over her highly embroidered dress for the sacred anointing of the oil that has gone on from time immemorial.”

Such was the reverence shown during the service that Lady Moyra heard the Queen Mother whispering to Prince Charles explaining what was happening: “We heard the Queen Mother whispering to him, telling him what was happening. He behaved impeccably. It was a lovely moment.”

The beautiful Hartnell dresses were teamed with long gloves and the attendants given capsules which contained a substance like smelling salts and Lady Moyra recalled using one to revive Lady Anne Coke who began to droop during the proceedings.

Normally preserved in a darkened room Lady Moyra’s beautiful gown will be on show for a limited time, enhancing the Jubilee Exhibition put together by Cathedral Guide Ian Bartlett.