Queen’s Birthday Parade And The Scots Guards

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 5

Queen’s Birthday Parade And The Scots Guards

(By

MEREBIMUR)

British customs and ceremonies have become an instinct, matured and formalised by 1200 years of recorded kingly rights and centuries of unwritten traditions.

The Queen today will be preparing for a great annual pageant, the celebration of the reigning sovereign’s birthday. It is a great day in the lives of many thousands of her subjects who will gather on the Horse Guards Parade today to watch it.

To have taken an active part in such a parade long before the First World War, and to have travelled from New Zealand in 1952 to be one of those thousands of her subjects as a spectator at the Queen’s Birthday parade, has been my good fortune. Her Majesty is of English and Scottish descent. This year it will be the 2nd Battalion of the Scots Guards who will Troop the Colour. It is not, according to regulations in the Brigade of Guards, their turn to Troop the Colour, but the other regiments have stood down to enable them to do so because in the very near future this battalion will cease to exist as such. It is to be absorbed by the Ist Battalion, which will leave only one battalion of the Scots Guards in the British Army.

The Ceremony A word about the origin and procedure of Trooping the Colour might not be out of place here. Trooping the Colour is a guard-mounting ceremony which originated in the early part of the eighteenth century, when guard-mounting took place daily throughout the year on the Horse Guards Parade and the colour to be carried on the King's Guard was then trooped. In more recent times it has been the practice to carry out guard-mounting and Trooping the Colour daily during the month of May.

These guard - mounting parades are not, as is sometimes thought, rehearsals for the Birthday Parade, but are the continuation of the old custom of mounting the King’s Guard from the Horse Guards Parade and in front of the Horse Guards building, in which' the Brigade has the right of accommodation, confirmed in 1759 by King George 11, and in which its headquarters are still situated. For many years past a gratuity has been issued to all men on guard on the Sovereign’s birthday, and to enable this to be distributed as widely as possible the custom, which continues, arose of finding the public duties on that day from the flank companies of the brigade in London. Thus, on the Queen’s birthday the Queen's Guard is a mixed one, the headquarters and the St James detachment coming from the battalion finding the escort for the colour, and the Buckingham Palace detachment from another battalion.

Palace Procession The commander of the parade is always the Field Officer in Brigade Waiting and men of the Brigade of Guards are detailed to line the route from Buckingham Palace, and to keep the ground. The Queen, who on this occasion wears the uniform of the regiment whose colour is to be trooped, rides in procession from Buckingham Palace escorted Ijy a Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry, with the Household Cavalry mounted band wearing their state uniforms. Only in London can a great military ceremony of this kind now be seen.

Back To 1639

The Scots Guards trace their history from Argyll’s Regiment, which was raised in 1639 by the Marquis of Argyll, who received authority from Charles 1 to take it to Ireland, during the

rebellion of 1642. It returned to Scotland in 1645 to join General Baillie's force against the Royalist leader. Montrose. (It seems to have been on the wrong side, but that was not remarkable in this period of political upheavals). The Regiment was again sent to Ireland in 1646 where, because of casualties and lack of reinforcements, its strength dwindled to about 400. On its return in 1649 it became known as the Irish Companies. When Charles II came to Edinburgh in 1650 he chose “The Irish Companies, under Argyll, to become his Majestie’s Foote Regiment of his Lyffe Guard.” In that year Cromwell marched North to put an end to Charles’s reign in Scotland and at the Battle of Dunbar, September 3, 1650, Leslie’s Royalist force was routed. The Scots Guards was one of the few units which held its ground against the victorious Roundhead advance, and was nearly exterminated, but with a nucleus of survivors it again made up its strength. The next year Charles made his bold but ill-fated attempt to dodge the Parliament forces and march on London. His final mistake, at Worcester on the anniversary of Dunbar, was in having his army divided by the River Severn. This resulted in a smashing defeat Cromwell's “Crowning Mercy,” and his own flight to France. The

remains of his Guards were scattered and the regiment ceased to exist.

Regiment Re-formed

In 1661 after Charles’s return, companies of guards were formed to garrison Edinburgh and Dumbarton Castles and in 1662 four more companies were raised and the Scots Regiment of Foot Guards was re-formed. The only material link with preWorcester days was that three of the original officers were serving (and possibly some other ranks whose history has not been recorded). In 1663 the companies were sent on permanent detachment to garrison various parts of Scotland, until 1685, when the regiment was ordered South to help in dealing with Monmouth’s Rebellion. Charles's early defeat at Sedgemoor caused the cancellation of the order and it was not until 1686 that the Scots Guards first came to London, and were quartered at Hounslow. There were then 14 companies, seven of which remained in Scotland. This was the beginning of the Brigade of Guards and The Scots, being the youngest regiment, was given the nickname of “The Kiddies.” This year, 1970, is the one hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the occasion when the 2nd Battalion was sent into Hougoumont at Waterloo to reinforce the other guards, June 18, 1815. Last year it was the Ist Battalion, Scots Guards, who Trooped the Colour on the Horse Guards Parade on June 14. It is, of course, the Sovereign’s colour that is trooped; it is made of crimson silk. Unlike the colours of other regiments of foot guards, those of the Scots Guards are divided historically into two sections: The Scottish colours from 1650 to 1707, and the Union colours from 1707 onwards.