ABSTRACT
In the autumn of 1941, with Britain struggling for survival in the heat of the Second World War, there took place in Whitehall what in retrospect appears to have been an extraordinary internal disagreement in the corridors of power as to whether or not Coventry should be granted a lord mayoralty. Coventry had city status by virtue of ancient prescriptive right as the seat of a bishopric. Several towns, including Coventry, Salford, Lancaster, Cambridge, Exeter, Wakefield and Canterbury, expressed an interest in receiving a lord mayoralty as a coronation honour, and on this occasion Coventry was successful. Lancaster's success as a coronation honour in 1937 encouraged would-be cities to view the anticipated coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 through hopeful eyes. Alan Swift of Cambridge was approached by Blackburn in July 1952, and by Southampton, both asking for advice as to how they might frame applications, with the coronation in mind.
