Gralhix OSINT Exercise #018

Mapping History: Tracing Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Procession with QGIS

Introduction

The task of mapping Queen Elizabeth II's coronation procession route evoked fond memories of my grandmother. Despite her humble, rural background, she harbored a deep fascination for the British Monarchy, particularly its regalia and pageantry. I couldn't help but think how much she would have enjoyed collaborating on this project, bridging her interest in the Royal Family with my own for modern mapping techniques.

The Challenge

Gralhix's task briefing outlined three main objectives:

a) Identify the exact door Queen Elizabeth II used to leave Westminster Abbey after her coronation.
b) Measure the distance travelled by the Queen's carriage following the 1953 coronation.
c) Estimate the average speed at which the Queen's carriage travelled.

While Gralhix rated these tasks as medium to easy difficulty, I found that the devil was in the details, especially when it came to verifying historical information and mapping the precise route.

Solution Summary

This investigation combined historical research with geospatial analysis to map and analyze Queen Elizabeth II's coronation procession route. Key findings include:

• A precisely mapped 8.5 km route based on ( procession duration of 1 hour and 40 minutes)
• An average speed of 5.1 km/hour
• Confirmation that the Queen exited Westminster Abbey through the Great West Door, then left a temporary annex via a door on the North corner to board her carriage

Primary OSINT techniques involved targeted Google searches of authoritative historical websites and royal archives, complemented by the use of QGIS for accurate route plotting and distance calculation. The research phase took approximately 30 minutes, while the QGIS mapping and analysis required about an hour. Surprisingly, verifying the average speed took a fair bit of additional time due to discrepancies between the anticipated schedule and actual events.

Detailed Walkthrough

Initial Research

I began by exploring authoritative sources for information on the coronation procession. The ArcGIS Story Maps provided a fascinating narrative and initial route description:

The Route of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation

The Royal Family's official website offered additional context (link):

A Coronation procession took place through London after the service, designed so that The Queen and her procession could be seen by as many people as possible. The 7.2 kilometre route took the 16,000 participants two hours to complete. The procession itself stretched for three kilometres. Those on foot marched 10 abreast while those on horseback were six abreast.

However, to fulfill the exercise requirements, I needed to independently verify and measure the route.

Procession Duration and Route Verification

The UK National Archives provided a crucial piece of evidence: a map with the planned timetable for the procession.

Procession itinerary on the bottom right table

This map indicated a planned departure at 2:50 pm and arrival at Buckingham Palace at 4:30 pm, suggesting a 100-minute procession. However, recognizing that events rarely adhere strictly to schedule, I sought confirmation from contemporaneous sources.

A detailed timeline in the Daily Record (link), a North Carolina newspaper, revealed that the actual procession departed at 3:17 pm and arrived at the palace at 4:55 pm, a duration of 98 minutes. This slight discrepancy underscores the importance of verifying historical details.

#1 gives the departure time from the abbey as 3:17 pm and #2 arrival at the palace as 4:55 pm

To confirm the route, I cross-referenced the National Archives map with photographs from the day, particularly those compiled by Life Magazine:

LIFE

Mapping with QGIS

With the route verified, I turned to QGIS (link) to create a precise map and measure the distance. QGIS offered several advantages over other mapping tools:

1. Advanced data manipulation capabilities
2. Customizable styling options
3. Integration of multiple data sources
4. Powerful analysis tools
5. Open-source nature with strong community support

Procession Map created by the author with QGIS

To map the route, I:

1. Added a base map of London using OpenStreetMap data
2. Created a new vector layer to trace the procession route
3. Added key landmarks as point features with descriptive labels
4. Styled the route line and landmarks for clarity
5. Used QGIS measurement tools to calculate the route length

The final measured distance came to 8.5 km.

Calculating Average Speed

Going with the National Archives' anticipated time of 100 minutes, corroborated by the Daily Record's report of 93 minutes, I calculated the average speed:

Total Distance (8.5 km ) ÷ Time (1.66 hours) ≈ Average Speed (5.1 km/h)

Identifying the Abbey Exit

The London Gazette, supplement 40020 page 6252, provide an official account of the Queen's exit from the Abbey (link):

"Then, at a signal given by the Earl Marshal, the Procession moved forward, and the Queen, leaving Saint Edward's Chapel, whilst all assembled sang the National Anthem, proceeded in State, supported as before, through the Choir and the Nave to the West Door of the Church."

Television footage confirmed that the Queen used a temporary annex constructed at the West Door for both entry (link) and exit (link).

Above the door is Elizabeth’s coat of arms. The camera panned up to show distinctive ornamental elements of the Abbey that allow us to confidently place the annex door to the side of the West Door.

The West Door of Westminster Abbey is to the right of annotated features.

Lessons Learned

This exercise yielded several valuable insights:

• QGIS proves to be a powerful tool for OSINT work, offering precision and versatility in mapping events.
• It’s important to distinguish between planned schedules and actual events highlighting the need for verification.
• There are considerable challenges in working with non-OCR scanned historical documents, particularly old newspapers.
• It’s worth considering information availability and its impact on the precision and confidence of historical investigations — by-the-minute timestamps were far less available in 1953 than they are in 2024.

Conclusion

This investigation into Queen Elizabeth II's coronation procession demonstrates the power of combining traditional historical research with modern geospatial analysis tools. Using the ICD 203 confidence scale:

Intelligence Community Directive 203

• I'm almost certain (95% confidence) that the West Door was used to exit the Abbey.
• While I acknowledge that contemporary accounts stated the route was around 7 km long, it's very likely (80–95% confidence) that the route distance was closer to 8.5 km.
• I consider it likely (55–80% confidence) in the calculated average carriage speed of 5.1 km/h, due to limited corroboration of exact timings.

This exercise underscores the value of OSINT techniques in historical research and the potential for tools like QGIS to enhance our understanding of past events and tell those stories visually.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Gralhix for creating this engaging exercise and contributing to the OSINT community. Learn more about Gralhix's work at Sofia Santos | OSINT Analysis and Exercises.

I'm also grateful to the QGIS community for developing and maintaining this powerful open-source tool.