Timeline
Article Jun 18, 1942 • Birth of Paul McCartney
Article 1951 • First mention of Paul McCartney in a press article
Article 1953 • Paul McCartney wins a competition for writing an essay about the Queen’s Coronation
Article July 1957 ? • Paul McCartney meets John Lennon for the 2nd time
Related people
Mind you, I did win a Coronation essay prize once! Out of 200 entries from the City of Liverpool. I was the triumphant winner who walked wobbly-kneed to accept his prize from the Lord Mayor of Liverpool himself. The prize was two books about the Queen, which are treasured to this day.
Paul McCartney – From Punch Magazine, August 1973
From Daily Mail Online, September 28, 2009:
Just two months short of his 11th birthday, the neat one-page essay earned the young McCartney first prize for his age-group in a competition to mark the coronation – a book token, presented by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
The handwritten piece about the Queen’s coronation was found by author Kevin Roach at the Central Library in Liverpool.
Writing in 1953, the young McCartney declares that Britain’s ‘present day royalty rules with affection rather than force’.
In 1997, he felt that ‘affection’ when he was knighted by the same queen.
Mr Roach, who is researching a book about the McCartney family, described the essay as ‘unique’.
He said he wasn’t concerned about its value, but likened the essay to John Lennon’s christening bracelet, which was the last piece of Beatles memorabilia to be sold in a private auction. It fetched £27,000.
Sir Paul, whose hits included Paperback Writer, was marked down for his grammar in the project, using the word ‘But’ at the start of a sentence.
But instead of joining the examiner in criticism, Mr Roach believes the decorative ‘B’ hints towards the musician’s future.
‘The interesting thing is that it is the same ‘B’ as on the early Beatles drum-kit logo in 1961 and 1962,’ he said.
‘His handwriting is well advanced – you would say it was written by someone who was older than 10-years-old, more like 14 or 15.’
The 10-year-old, who would become one of the most famous singer songwriters of all time, entered a city council essay competition in 1953 while he was a pupil at Joseph Williams junior school in Belle Vale, Liverpool.
The schoolboy compares the happy scenes expected outside Buckingham Palace to the coronation of William the Conqueror nine centuries earlier, when a massacre of Saxons took place.
Sir Paul won the under-11s age group category and was presented with a prize at the Central Library by the Lord Mayor on 27 May 1953.
Mr Roach said he came across the bound collection of essays while working on a book about the history of the McCartney family.
‘I did know from reading the council minutes that this competition took place, and it was then a case of looking for the actual winning entries,’ he said.
He discovered the volume among a collection marked ‘coronation events’. There were no clues pointing towards the rock star’s essay, which is thought to be his earliest surviving creative work.
Mr Roach said many historians believe McCartney bought a book on modern art with his book token prize and that the book inspired him to become a musician.
By chance, the volume of essays were stored next to a collection of issues of Mersey Beat – the music magazine that helped launch the Beatles to become the biggest band of their generation.
