REGIMENT ON PARADE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 150, 29 June 1929, Page 21

REGIMENT ON PARADE

PRINCE AND DUKE PRESENT

The Regiment of Grenadier Guards —-all three battalions—marched past their Colonel, the Duke of Connaught, on the Horse Guards Parade, on the morning of lGtn May. Such a parade of a complete regiment is a very rare event, and certainly it was th,e first time silce the war that the battalions of the Grenadiers.had been brought together, states the "Daily Telegraph." But the occasion, too, was memorable for Another reason. It was-to mark the completion by His Royal Highness of twenty-five- years' service as Colonel o* .tie Grenadier Guards that the 2nd and 3rd Battalions were brought to London sp ially from Pirbright and Aldershot, and the Ist Battalion marched to Whitehall from the Tower. 1 . ; VETERAN'S AND CADETS.. The puke, wearing tne uniform of the regiment, was accompanied by the Prince of Wales, Colonel of the Welsh Guards. The Earl of Cavan, Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Major-General C. E. Corkran, G.O.C. the London District,, were in attendance. From the rooms above the Horse Guards Arch the Duke and Duch-. ess *of York, Prince Arthur of Connaught, and the Princess Royal looked down upon the gorgeous spectacle. The "sides of the parade ground were thronged with spectators, and every vacant space along the Mall and the pathways from which" any portion of the ground could be seen were crowded. On the parade square His Royal Highness saw not only the regiment in full strength, but a contingent of memmers of the Comrades' Association. This .parade lacked the outward uniformity of the other, for silk hats' and cloth caps appeared side by iside in the ranks "There were those among the bemedalled veterans who were in the regiment even before His Royal Highness became colonel. The Duke of Connaught saw also those whose careers were still before them, cadets from Sandhurst and Cainberley,: from Oxford ana Camtoridge Universities, and from the Eton O.T.C. "Under a perfect spring sky, their Eoyal Highnesses rode across the parade • ground to the saluting base near the Horse Guards Arch. To their front the three battalions on parade presented an amazingly striking picture. The sunlight played over the scarlet and 'gold of the uniforms, caught the flashing bayonets and glinted from the glossy bearskins, and from the gold and silver facings of the bandsmen and their burnished instruments. Behind the serried ranks of soldiers in peace-time uniforms there loomed the great war memorial of the Guards and the bronze figures of guardsmen in the khaki of the war years, with gas masks strapped" to their chests. The bands of the regiment were augmented by the massed- drums of the Brigade of Guards. ■ Conducted by Colonel Lord Henry C. Seymour, Officer Commanding the regiment, the Duke of Connaught inspected the three battalions, as well as a detachment of former Grenadiers who are now members of the City and Metropolitan Police Forces. THE THREE MARCHES. To a slow march the battalions, num"bering'nearly 2000 men in all, marched past. - Each battalion■: carried its regimental and -King's colours, which ■were dipped to the salute as the bear' ers'came in lirieWith the' Duke.' ',TJve: regiment, led by the Ist Battalion; next inarched past in eoluinn of! companies, in quick time to the'music of "The British Grenadiers." Finally, the'parade, forming .lines of close column, advanced in review, order, and gave -another Royal salute to the Duke. \ ■ 'The Prince of "Wales rode -to the Mall,/where he entered a waiting motor-car, but the Duke of Connaught placed himself at the head of his reginrtent as. the battalions, in numerical, order, marched off. The route taken through the Mall led past Clarence House, the Duke of Connaught's' home, and\here his, Royal Highness took the salute as the whole regiment once more passed before him on their return to tarracks. ■Overnight the 2nd and 3rd.Battalions stayed respectively at Chelsea and Wellington Barracks. The Ist Battalion 1 inarched out from the ,Tower on the order "City escort, forward." It passed through the city with bands playing and colours flying, and, in accordance with the privilege enjoyed by the Grenadiers, with fixed bayonets.. On the return march" the battalion •was ..•welcomed by large crowds which lined the pavements around the Maaeion House, where the Lord; Mayor,., fitir, Kynaston Studd, took the salute.