Très cordiale! French join the Guards at Buckingham Palace
FOR centuries, Britain and France were sworn enemies, often at war over their empires and famously on opposing sides at the Battle of Waterloo.
But while French soldiers taking part in the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace would once have been unimaginable, it finally happened yesterday.
History was made as 32 members of the Garde Republicaine paraded with 40 Guardsmen form the Scots Guards on the Palace’s forecourt.
The involvement for the first time of a country from outside the Commonwealth in the Changing of the Guard ceremony, which takes place four times each week – rising to every day in June and July – celebrated the 120th anniversary of the signing of the Entente Cordiale.
The diplomatic agreement between Britain and France, signed on April 8, 1904, cemented an improvement in Anglo-French relations after the Napoleonic Wars and laid the groundwork for the two nations’ co-operation in the First World War and beyond.
The band of the Grenadier Guards played the two national anthems and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, representing the King while he is undergoing cancer treatment, joined French ambassador Helene Duchene in inspecting the troops as they lined up opposite each other.
The brigade major of the Household Division, Lieutenant Colonel James Shaw, who oversaw the training of soldiers from both nations, said: ‘I’ve enjoyed working with the French – I’ve found them professional, impressive, smart and good fun.’
The Ministry of Defence stressed the French soldiers were not ‘guarding’ the Palace but simply taking part in the ceremonial event.
Simultaneously, a ceremony took place at the Elysee Palace in Paris, where 16 Coldstream Guards joined French troops to provide the Presidential Guard in the first ever example of a foreign state guarding the official residence of the French president, Emmanuel Macron. He said in a video address: ‘Long live the Entente Cordiale and long live the Franco-British friendship.’
The events are part of many UK-French activities planned for 2024, including in Normandy in June to mark the Allied veterans who fought to liberate France from the Nazis.