A SMART TURN OUT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18586, 21 December 1934, Page 4

A SMART TURN OUT

PRINCE AND THE GUARD

EXCELLENT IMPRESSION

PRAISE FOR TRAINEES

The work of the territorial trainees who formed the guard of honor for the Duke of Gloucester at yesterday’s official reception in Gisborne was one of the highlights of a successfully organised function. The guard comprised three officers and 60 other ranks of the Hawke’s Bay Infantry Regiment, with three supernumerary officers, Major A. Blackburn commanding the guard. In every detail of the ceremonial drill the trainees carried themselves with a steadiness which reflected great credit upon officers and men alike, and earned warm praise from ex-service men who, by their experience in past years, were well qualified to judge the merits of the performance registered by the guard. Those connected with the official part-v made no secret of the fact that the guard had made an excellent impression, and that their smartness in the manual of arms attracted the notice of ffis Royal Highness. Major-General R. G. II lioward-Vyse, C.M.G., D. 5.0., chief-of-staff to the Duke of Gloucester, was particularly interested in the manner in which the guard performed its duties, the young trainees snaring his interest with the ex-service men, among whom General Howard-Vyse found several men who had served in the same theatre of war as himself, in the Mesopotamian campaign.

While the evolutions of the guard of honor at the reserve attracted most attention, there was a ceremony of almost equal interest performed in Derby street, prior to the commencement of the combined parade of military units, ex-service men, Boy .Scouts and Girl Guides. This was the tendering of the f oyal Salute to the Kind’s color of the Hawke’s Bay Regiment, when the color was incorporated in the parade. The ceremonial was exactly the same as that associated with the arrival and departure of (be Duke of Gloucester at the reserve, with the additional evolutions required by the parading of the color. To those who witnessed the incident, there was given an earnest of the smart ness with which the guard had been trained for the occasion. When it is remembered that the training was carried out by the territorials at some acrifice of personal convenience, and involved a series of parades “behind the scenes” during the past two or three weeks, the keenness of the trainees can be better appreciated.