Platinum Jubilee

Queens Platinum Jubilee: Royal Signals

03 June 2022

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16th Airborne Division Signals (Middlesex Yeomanry) TA carrying out Coronation duties in 1953

With worldwide commitments for the Royal Signals increasing by 25% between 1950 and 1954, the influx of National Service conscripts helped to maximise efforts with many undertaking active service in Malaya, Korea, Egypt, Cyprus, Kenya, and with BOAR. In 1953, three hundred men of the Corps marched in the Procession from Buckingham Palace as part of the Coronation. The Chief Signal Officer, London District, was responsible for the signal sent from Westminster Abbey for the guns at the Tower to be fired at the exact moment of the crowning.

647 Signal Troop on deployment to Singapore in 1967 alongside their American counterparts

With much of the Corps braced for regular crash outs in Germany, others deployed further afield to provide innovation support to international partners. In 1966, 647 Troop deployed to Singapore to help the US military launched the first Defence Satellite Communications System. Put together like a Meccano set, pictured is the 60ft inflatable radome which housed a 40ft dish.

Royal Signals delivering rooftop communications in Northern Ireland in 1977

Following a period of civil unrest and sectarian violence, the Royal Signals deployed to Northern Ireland as part of Operation BANNER. The Corps was the second largest element in the security force, introducing revolutionary technology such as aerial video surveillance and designing electro-mechanical relays to enable military nets to be linked seamlessly to commercial nets. The Corps also deployed computers into the field for the first time, enabling patrols and checkpoints to check vehicles against a central database.

Racal Tactical Satellite Communications dish (TACSATCAM) at Ajax Bay in 1982

Six hundred men of the Royal Signals took part in the 89 day Falklands War in 1982. The new Racal TACSATCOM (pictured) provided strategic contingency rear link communications to the United Kingdom throughout the conflict. Following the Argentine surrender, the newly formed 266 Signal Squadron worked hard to establish radio and telegraph communications with the new early warning radar sites, outposts and airfield before the winter set in.

Signaller Mike Dyer, son of the late Major Dickie Dyer MBE R Signals, who deployed with 212 Signals Squadron in Bosnia in 1995/1996

In a decade marked by peacekeeping and monitoring operations across the Balkans, the Royal Signals deployed alongside international partners in sub-zero conditions. When the Accord negotiated at the Dayton Peace Talks stabilised the Bosnian Civil War, the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) deployed at the Intervention Force (IFOR) to implement its provisions. A testament to the adaptability of the Corps, the conditions experienced stood in stark contrast to earlier electronic warfare deployments in the Gulf.

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Royal Signals installing satellite dishes in Camp Bastion in 2007

Signallers again found their ingenuity and communications skills tested during deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. At Camp Bastion, a single Royal Signals troop delivered fixed communications to some 2,000 troops, focusing on command and control networks between the UK and Helmand via satellite communications and intra-theatre links to Kandahar and Kabul.

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Troops from the 22nd Signal Regiment run a Mobile Testing Unit (MTU) as part of Op Rescript.

Running an MTU at the West Midland Safari Park in Kidderminster, 21 May 2020 the 12-man team of Royal Signallers are responsible for administering the drive-through site. Troops were deployed on Operation Rescript as part of the Army’s support to the UK Government's plans to meet the increased demand for coronavirus testing.

Since 1952, the Royal Corps of Signals has continually mastered the technologies and skills needed to deliver and protect the changing global information flows required by the Army in war and peace.

For the first 40 years, when voice, carried by radio and telephone, and telegraph were the main means of passing information, the Corps pioneered mobile trunk networks, direct dial digital telephony and battlefield satellite communications.

Then, following the arrival of computers on the battlefield, with the demand for data growing exponentially, the Corps led advances in computer networking, and active and passive cyber warfare.