QUEENS WHO COMMAND REGIMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15718, 19 September 1914, Page 3 (Supplement)

QUEENS WHO COMMAND REGIMENTS.

MILITARY HONOURS,

Although it is not an unusual thing for Royal ladies to be appointed honorary officers of famous regiments, it is quits an innovation for the announcement to bo made as was the ca?e in tie recent lilit of birthday honours, when Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra, the Princess Royal, and the Duchess of Argyll were created colonels-in-chief of various regiments. The 18th, Queen Mary's Own, Hussars is the regiment which now enjoys the honour of the supreme command of Queen Mary. It is one of the most famous regiments in the British Army— Peninsular War, Waterloo, the South African War, and tho defence of Ladysmith being anion* their battle honours. Her Majesty is also Colonel-in-Chief of the sth Pomeranian Hussars, a very historic German, corps. For many years past, since King Frederick- William IV. of Prussia started the fashion by appointing his sister, the widow of Tsar Nicholas 1., a colonel in the famous 6th Regiment of Cuirassiers, it has been the custom for European kings to bestow a similar honour on Royal ladies. The late Queen Victoria was Colonel-in-Chief of tho Ist, Queen of England's, Dragoon Guards of the German Army, to which regiment she presented a magnificent pair of silver kettledrums.

In the German Army the Kaiserin, the Crown Princess, and the Duchess of Brunswick are all honorary cplouels, as ia also the Queen of Greec*, youngest sister of the Kaiser. The Crown Princess is a colonel of the 2nd Silesian Dragoons, and used to take great delight before her marriage in leading the regiment at reviews, mounted upon a magnificent chargerTo the Tsarina belongs the distinction of commanding more regiments than any other woman in the world, for she hold's the rank of colonel in five regiments, while her two eldest daughters are colonels-in-chief. The second daughter of the Tsarina, the Grand Duchess Tatiana, on whom was bestowed the colonelcy of the 14th Lancers on the occasion of her 16th birthday, last year, can boast of being the youngest girl colonel. The Grand Duchess Olga, eldest daughter of the Tsarina, is a Colonel-in-Chief of the 3rd Hussars.

Referring again to the recent birthday honours, it. is interesting to note that the Yorkshire regiment to which Queen. Alexandra has been appointed colonel-in-chief has long had the privilege of calling themselves "Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own." Another regiment of which the Queen-Mother is colonel is the 19th, Queen Alexandra's Own Royal, Hussars. ThePrincess Royal is Colonel-in-Ghief of the 7th, Princess Royal's, Dragoon Guards, and the Duchess of Argyll colonel of the Argyll and Sutherlandshire Highlanders, an honour probably conferred upon her in recognition of her work in providing for the Scottish convalescents after the South. African War.