The colours captain and the curious case of a broken frog
AT THE time of the Coronation, Major General Andrew Watson was a captain in 2nd Battalion the Black Watch and had been selected to carry the regimental colours. He said: ‘In the picture (left), we are coming out of Queen’s Barracks, Perth, before travelling to London where all the regimental colour parties assembled at Olympia. ‘There were several hundred of us and we had a full rehearsal at about 4am the day before. On the morning of the Coronation it was raining heavily. The more it tipped down the heavier the colours – made of embroidered cloth – became. ‘We marched for miles and miles. Most of that time I carried the colours on my shoulder but along the Mall it had to be held upright, as in the picture, and my frog – the holder for the pole that took the weight of the flag – had broken, so I was carrying the by now drenched and leaden colours held out in front of me and unsupported. It was hard work!
‘But you felt so privileged to be doing it you couldn’t have cared less. I was pretty tired by the end, but when I got back to Olympia my wife met me and said she wanted to go back to see the Queen on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. So we walked the three miles or so back together.’