The king was dead. The date was February 6, 1952. People all across Great Britain and around the world were shocked and saddened by the news. King George VI, better known as Bertie to those close to him, had been king of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms since 1936. The king’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth, next in line to the throne, was heartbroken. She was in Kenya on a royal tour when she learned of her father’s death. She immediately returned to London. At the moment of the king’s death, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II.
When the king died, the government began planning for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Planning and arranging the coronation was a logistical nightmare. Leaders of countries and territories around the world were expected to attend. One detail was certain from the beginning. Queen Elizabeth would ride in the horse-drawn coronation coach from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey where every coronation had taken place since 1066, nearly 1,000 years. Finally, the date of the coronation was set for June 2, 1953.
As soon as news of the king’s death spread throughout the realm, people began creating all sorts of items to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s upcoming coronation. There were teacups, coffee cups, plates, figurines, thimbles, spoons, coins, books, and a myriad of other items. Just northeast of London, Jack Odell and Leslie Smith owned and operated a small shop called Lesney Products & Company Limited where they sold handmade metal miniature road-building equipment. Although their business was struggling to survive, they began working on a miniature replica of the ornate gilded Gold State Coach which had been used to transport the sovereign to and from every coronation since 1821. Their finished product had “eight painted metal horses and four riders leading a coach that was either painted or plated in gold or silver.” The miniature was an instant hit. Jack and Leslie produced a smaller replica, just a few inches long, and it was a bigger hit than the larger version. Jack and Leslie sold over a million of the tiny coronation coaches. Keep in mind that this was decades before the electronic age, where advertisements bombard you each time you look at your phone. People wishing to purchase one of the tiny coronation coaches had to go looking for them.
Jack and Leslie realized that they were onto something big, but they were unsure what product to make next. Compared to the coronation coaches, their miniature road construction equipment was a failure. After another long day of seemingly endless discussions about what to produce next, Jack and Leslie left their shop and went to their respective homes. That evening, Jack’s daughter lamented that she wanted a toy that she could take to school but the school had a policy that all toys had to be small enough to fit inside a small container of a precise measurement. All of their miniatures were too large to fit in the container. Then, Jack had an epiphany that they create miniatures on the same scale as their wildly successful coronation coach. The next day, Jack rushed to the shop and shared the idea with Leslie. They quickly agreed that they had found their next product. Their new miniatures were a huge hit, and they still continue to sell well. The miniatures that Jack and Leslie began creating, which were based on the scale of the coronation coach, took the name of his daughter’s school’s small container policy. That is how Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation led to the beginning of Matchbox Cars.
Sources:
1. Valdes-Dapena, Peter, ” How Queen Elizabeth’s coronation helped start Matchbox cars,” CNN.com, April 25, 2023, accessed September 28, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/
2. The Strong National Museum of Play, “Matchbox Cars,” accessed September 28, 2024, https://www.museumofplay.org/
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