The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Poppy’s posy welcomes the Queen See pages 4-5
‘May you long remain second to none’, says monarch in presenting new standard to Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Poppy Coombes presents a posy to the Queen during her visit to the Army base at Leuchars in Fife yesterday.
The Queen has presented a new standard to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards at their base in Fife.
She performed a drive past and inspected a parade by the regiment before the standard was consecrated by Chaplain General the Rev David Coulter during her visit to Leuchars Station with Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, on Thursday.
Addressing the regiment, known as the Carabiniers and Greys, she said the battle honours on the new standard were “testimony to the sacrifice, deeds and enduring values that lie behind the embroidery on display today”.
She said: “I know this standard will continue to provide confidence and inspiration to you and your successors.
“I therefore entrust it to your safekeeping and for it to be with you wherever you may be in the service of our country.
“May you long remain ‘second to none’.”
The Queen, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment, was dressed in duck egg blue, with a Stewart Parvin coat and Rachel Trevor Morgan hat for the visit, three years after she officially named the regiment’s Fife base Waterloo Lines.
She also met servicemen and women and their families at the station, home to SCOTS DG since 2015, and appeared amused by papier mache models of the Royal Family made by children at Leuchars Primary School.
Patricia Bogidrau, 11, who made the Prince William model, spoke to the Queen with her mother Lanieta and brother Aminio, 14, dressed in his ceremonial school uniform, and and sister Elainah, eight.
Lanieta said: “She said they were lovely and it was good that the kids got to take part at the school.
“She spoke to my son about his school, Queen Victoria, in Dunblane.”
Linda Beveridge, with her children Savanna-Rose, five, and Jackson, three, showed the Queen a display about an exercise by some of the army wives to sample what their husbands do.
She said: “She was really interested and she had a good look at the photographs.
“She talked to all the children and they told her their names.”
Ollie Humphries, seven, who greeted the Queen with his mother, Dawn, said: “I have met the Queen two times now. I was a bit nervous.”
Kimberley Scott had a chat with her, with children Lucy, six, and Joshua, seven, who came over all shy.
She said: “It was brief but it was lovely.”
Before she left the Queen was presented with a posy by Poppy Coombes, seven, daughter of Commanding Officer Lt Col Dominic Coombes, accompanied by the children of Regiment Sergeant Major Scott Robinson, Olivia, eight, and Ellie, seven.
Lt Col Coombes said it was a “massive honour” to have the Queen at Leuchars.
He said: “Even though we don’t fight battles on horseback now, the standard is still the rally point for the regiment so it’s a very, very special piece of material. To have Her Majesty the Queen come here to our home at Leuchars was brilliant.
“She said to me before she left she thought the regiment was in really good form, everyone seemed really happy and she was delighted to meet some of the soldiers and, importantly, their families.”
The SCOTS DG regiment moved to Leuchars from Germany three years ago. It recently returned from a tour of duty in Cyprus.
I know this standard will continue to provide confidence and inspiration to you and your successors