Word: tonga
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...rains heavily in Tonga, in the warm South Pacific. Thus it did not seem unusual to Tonga's Queen Salote* that it should be raining in London on coronation day. Instead of withdrawing into the shelter of her coach like most notables in the long procession from Westminster Abbey, Queen Salote sat in the drenching downpour, a massive (6 ft. 3 in., 280 Ibs.), broad-faced woman in red robes and a headdress from which two feathers stuck stiffly upright; she beamed, waved, mopped rain from her face with a handkerchief, beamed again. The soaked, footsore crowd...
Linger longer, Queen of Tonga...
From then on. the Queen of Tonga was a hit wherever she went. Her street clothes were unremarkable, her manner motherly and informal, but she maintained an air of dignity and genuine queenliness. She turned up at the ballet to see Margot Fonteyn dance Sleeping Beauty, at Lord's to watch the cricket, hefted babies at the Chelsea welfare center, inspected Canterbury and Cambridge...
...Such is the force of character that Queen Salote made us as conscious of Tonga as Columbus made the Caribs conscious of Spain. Everyone now wants to know something more...
...before 9 a.m., the first processions arrived: the Lord Mayor of London and the Speaker of the House of Commons; the representatives of 74 foreign powers, including General George C. Marshall and Russia's Jacob Malik; the Sultans of Zanzibar, Perak and Selangor; Her Majesty, the Queen of Tonga. The Dukes of Gloucester and Kent entered and took up positions in the chancel. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, each with her ladies in waiting, moved down the aisle and took their privileged places. Outside, and ever nearer, came the sound of horses' hooves on Parliament Square...