Queen's Own Yeomanry - Guidon Presentation

After a good deal of faf - pinning on medals, finding a hat and generally getting tarted up - we left here at about 10.45 for Alnwick. We arrived in plenty of time, at about 11.45 but still found ourselves well back in the car park. Plenty of people we knew were arriving at the same time. We soon got onto a shuttle bus and were driven into the Castle. There we hung about a bit saying hullo to people we hadn't seen for ages and making use of a rather smart green loo. After a while, we made our way through to what I think is called Castle Green - it is a large expanse of grass anyway. There we found seats - not on a stand, unfortunately, so I was not able to see much of what went on. While we sat there we saw the Royal Standard slowly rising to the top of the flag pole on top of the castle.

Dead on 12.45, the band marched on and the Parade began. This is the point to explain what was happening. The history of the 5 Regiments that now form the Queen's Own Yeomanry goes back a long way and is complex. Suffice it to say that they ended up as Territorial Army Regiments, that engendered great loyalty amonst the men who served in them. Each Regiment had a Guidon - the flag that was used in times past to act as a rallying point for soldiers in battle. It is the heart of the Regiment and symbolises all that the Regiment means to the soldiers. Over the last 30 odd years, these 5 Regiments have gradually been amalgamated as there have been less and less resources and latterly there was a great fight to survive. The Regiments were The Yorkshire Yeomanry, The Ayrshire Yeomanry, The Northumberland Hussars, The Fife and Rorfar Yeomanry and Scottish Horse, and the North Irish Horse. Each Guidon bore the battle honours of their Regiment. Today, as a final act of the amalgamation, Prince Charles, the Royal Honorary Colonel of the QOY, presented a new Guidon to the 'new' Regiment.

Before that could happen, or even the Roy. Hon. Col. appear, they had to march off the old guidons, which had marched on with the Regiment. This was a very moving moment or two as all those years of history marched off through the ranks of soldiers to Auld Lang Syne.

PC (not purple coo you silly) came on and inspected the troops before the new Guidon was consecrated in a short service conducted by the Chaplain-General HM Land Forces. PC then presented the Guidon to the Regiment, who did a march past with it proudly carried in the middle.

[The lady in pink is the Duchess of Northumberland, by the way]

At this point, an order came over the loud speaker that all Old Comrades should assemble as previously instructed. What a scramble!! Some had always intended to march, some most certainly were not and others thought they probably wouldn't! Well, you've guessed it - they all marched, including one who could barely stand, let alone walk!! But he made it as did all the rest. (I tried to upload a video of them all but it told me the web page couldn't be accessed. I think it meant that the method I was trying to use was no good).

That really marked the end and we all trailed off, via the lovely green loos, to a very full, very large marquee for drink and a bit of food and a great deal of meeting and greeting and talking and enjoyment. On the way we passed the soldiers preparing for a photo, but I was not allowed to stand about long enough to get a pic with PC on it!