Queen Mary's Tiaras on Tour

Queen Elizabeth II began a six-month coronation tour of the Commonwealth in November 1953, with four of her grandmother's sparkling tiaras in her luggage

Today, we continue the story of Queen Elizabeth II and the tiaras she inherited from her grandmother, Queen Mary. If you missed the first part of the story, you can catch up here! And now, for the next part of the bejeweled tale.

On the night of Monday, November 23, 1953, London Airport was buzzing. Floodlights on tall scaffolding illuminated the path to the BOAC Stratocruiser Canopus, the aircraft that would soon carry Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, to North America to begin their coronation tour of the Commonwealth. Newspaper reporters in trench coats and fedoras lined one side of the pathway, and onlookers bundled in furs and jackets peered out from the other. They were waiting to catch one final glimpse of their monarch before she left the country for six long months, traveling a remarkable 44,000 miles. But the Queen, it seemed, was nowhere to be found.

The airplane carrying the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh leaves London Airport, bound for Newfoundland, on November 23, 1953 (Daily Mirror/SuperStock/Alamy)

Blame the crowds outside at Buckingham Palace. There, the Queen and the Duke had said private goodbyes to their children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, before stepping into their car for the first short leg of their journey. When Elizabeth and Philip's chauffeur began the drive from the palace to the airport, the royal couple realized that a huge number of people were lining the streets along the route. The Queen asked the driver to slow their pace so that her subjects could see her better as they passed. As a result, they were more than 15 minutes late arriving for the official departure ceremony. They were joined by the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret as they waved to the people and the cameras at the airport before stepping on to the plane that would carry them across the ocean to Newfoundland and then Bermuda.