Trooping The Colour
10th June 2023Horse Guards Parade
1400 soldiers of the Household Division and The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, including several hundred musicians from the Massed Bands, paraded in tropical heat on Horse Guards for the second of two formal Reviews.
Trooping the Colour reviewed by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales also included 250 soldiers from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, the 1st Battalion Irish Guards and, for the first time, the 1st Battalion London Guards (the Foot Guards’ Reserve Unit), who lined the processional route along The Mall. The soldiers were inspected by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Colonel Welsh Guards.
It was a glorious ceremony, particularly as we had seats under a huge tree in the Downing Street garden that offered respite from the heatwave. It was bittersweet to watch Prince William wearing the green and white of the Welsh Guards when we last saw him resplendant in the teal of the Irish Guards.
I was delighted to be accompanied by Third Warden Jacqueline Burrows, her husband Simon and their son Tom, Immediate Past Master Paul Taberer, Honorary Freeman Sharon Taberer, Court Assistant Flora Okereke and her husband John, Liveryman Kelly Cushman and her partner, Brett O’Donnell and special guests from the UK and USA.
Nowhere else in the world have I experienced such pageantry on an annual basis. The sound of the horses' hooves as they circled the parade ground is my favourite part. Alas it is always towards the end, bringing to a close a display that I never tire of watching.