Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Entire regiment parades at unique colours ceremony
It had all the military pomp and ceremony the occasion deserved – except a special Royal visitor.
The Queen of Denmark had to withdraw from a prestigious military parade in Canterbury on Saturday after being taken ill in the morning.
In her role as Colonel-inChief, Queen Margrethe II had been due to present new colours to three battalions of Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment at the Spitfire St Lawrence Ground.
But the spectacular parade, which had been months in the planning, still went ahead after the Danish ambassador to the UK , Lars Thuesen, stepped in.
The unique ceremony marked the 25th anniversary of the formation of the regiment, whose association with the Danish Royal Household began more than 300 years in 1689.
The presentation of new colours is a remarkable occasion in the history of any regiment, but to have all three sets of colours presented at the same time is thought to be unique.
It also marked the first public appearance of the 4th Battalion, which has only been in existence for a month.
Six hundred troops were joined by battalion veterans and paraded in front of thousands of spectators, including the families of the servicemen and women, military chiefs and civic dignitaries.
On parade were not only soldiers from across the south of England, but also the Midlands and Germany, where the 1st and 2nd Battalions are serving. The 3rd Battalion is a reserve unit based at Leros Barracks in Sturry Road.
The ceremony mirrored the Queen’s Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour), with each of the three old sets of colours trooped through the ranks before the new colours were blessed by the Army’s Deputy Chaplain General.
Each battalion received two colours – the Queen’s Colour, which bears the Union Flag emblazoned with the tegiment’s battle honours, and the Regimental Colour bearing the regiment’s own insignia, again carrying more battle honours.
A programme of entertainment followed formal proceedings and included performances from the band of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment supported by the Queen’s Division Band, the Pipes and Drums of the London Scottish Regiment and The Danish Royal Life Guards.
The event closed with a descent by the regiment’s parachute display team, The Flying Tigers, with a huge flag.