The Coronation of Kings Charles III will be marked with celebratory events across our area, just as the crowning of his mother was 70 years ago.

The municipal borough of Wanstead and Woodford, which was abolished in 1965 and became part of the new London Borough of Redbridge, celebrated Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation in style in 1953 with a week-long programme of events organised by a man who held what his local newspaper described as an “interesting job”.

Starting on Monday, June 1 with free cinema shows for school children, a tea and concert for old folk, and the “grand midnight variety matinee to include the crowning of The Queen of the Carnival”, the day of the Coronation, June 2, featured a 64-mile Coronation cycle race, “thrilling motor cycle grass track racing” and culminated in a “spectacular” firework display at Broadmead Recreation Ground.

The events continued until Saturday, June 6 when a Coronation Street Carnival Parade was held in the afternoon, followed by a “Grand Military Display” and another “spectacular” firework display “to be followed by the Grand Finale including singing by the massed choirs of the Borough”.

The man ultimately responsible for the coronation celebrations was the organiser Harry Allison.

Writing in the official programme he said: “Each hamlet, town and city will be organising some form of celebration in honour of this historic occasion, and I am not unmindful of the great honour bestowed on me by the Borough Council of Wanstead and Woodford when appointing me to organise the celebrations in this delightful Borough.”

Harry’s nephew Bill Allison has shared a copy of the programme with the Guardian and you can enjoy some extracts from it at the top of this page.

Bill doesn’t know how Harry came to be appointed to the role, but borough officials may have decided he was the right man for the job after he made headlines the previous year when “five flying elephants came down to earth”.

Harry’s “interesting job” was publicity agent for Billy Smart’s Circus and in January 1952 he arrived back at London Airport on a flight from Siam (now Thailand) with five baby elephants.

Harry had been tasked by the legendary circus owner to “go to Siam and buy some elephants” and the 7,200-mile journey made history because it was the first time any airline had attempted to carry five of the animals in one plane.

“I think it can honestly said be said that never before had five elephants received so much attention as the ultimate fate of the ones in question, even well known film stars were at the airport at London to greet them on arrival,” he wrote of the unusual mission in his local paper, the Ludlow Advertiser.

Harry’s career in stage and show business was continue to after his foray into Coronation celebration organiser. He became manager of Shanklin Theatre on the Isle of Wight in 1955 and was later general manager of Sir Robert Fossett and Robert Brothers circuses, but he is said to have died of a broken heart in November 1975 after a ten-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a lion that escaped from one of the shows.