His Majesty The King has presented new Colours (ceremonial flags) to The Coldstream Guards one of which will be Trooped through the ranks at His Majesty’s official Birthday Parade in London on Saturday.
With a touch of his hand, His Majesty The King consecrates the Second Battalion (7 Company) Coldstream Guards colour. This is the Colour that will be trooped at the King’s Birthday Parade.
The four ensigns (flags) and the newly consecrated colours await the order to march off.
The Coldstream Guards give three cheers for the King.
The Second Battalion (Number 7 Company) Coldstream Guards colour is unveiled for the first time.
The Corps of Drums march onto the quadrangle.
One of the Coldstream Guards officers shares a smile with a warrant officer.
His Majesty The King arrives on parade.
The Coldstream Guards give a royal salute to His Majesty The King.
The event reinforced The Coldstream Guards’ longstanding service to the Crown and provided an excellent opportunity for the Coldstream family to come together and celebrate the 375th anniversary of the Regiment.
The new flags are decorated with elaborate symbols and battle honours, gained in almost four centuries of service, and once consecrated take on a mystical quality as it is believed that within their precious threads is woven the spirits of all those that had died fighting in their name. To dishonour the Colours is to dishonour the sacrifice and memory of past heroes, and the regiment’s current and future reputation. This is why the Colours, although valuable and exquisite works of art, are still, to this day, treated with such awe and reverence, despite only being used now for ceremonial purposes.
Colours cannot be used on parade (or in battle) until they have been consecrated, so today the traditional ceremony of prayers and blessings was held in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle for the presentation of the ceremonial flags of The Coldstream Guards, to ensure that New Colours are trooped by Number 7 Company at the King’s Birthday Parade on 14th June.
The parade formed up in Victoria Barracks, Windsor with both Battalions’ Old Colours, and were led smartly by the band in a march to the Castle through Windsor town centre and into the Castle Quadrangle.
Under command of the Regimental Lieutenant Colonel the old Colours were marched off parade as the Band of the Coldstream Guards played ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
A makeshift altar was created on the grass in the Quadrangle from regimental drums for a traditional drumhead service. This echoed the tradition of ancient battles where soldiers would create a sacred space on the battlefield, wherever they were stationed, and hold a service to pray for protection and courage to fight before they marched to meet their enemy.
The new flags were brought onto parade, uncased in the daylight for the first time, to gasps from the audience of invited guests, and laid reverentially on the drum stack altar. The new richly coloured silk, silver and gold flags looked gloriously bright and crisp and are covered in symbols and badges significant to the regiment; 44 of their 113 battle honours; and, for the first time in 70 years, The King’s Crown.
The King’s arrival in the Quadrangle was announced by the national anthem from the Band of the Coldstream Guards. He then received a Royal Salute from the Guardsmen on parade.
The Coldstream Guards’ magnificent new flags were first consecrated by the Chaplain General and then presented to His Majesty The King, who formally presented each flag to the Regiment with a sacred touch.
Henceforth these flags are known as the Colours of the Regiment. Once the blessing and touch is given to the Colours, and all who will bear and serve under them, all those that fight in their name carry the protection of God and Sovereign.
His Majesty addressed all those on parade, wishing them well and thanking them for their valuable service at home and overseas.
Once the Ensigns received the New Colours, they marched them back to the Guards and took up their post in front of them – the Regiment. The Regiment then gave three cheers for His Majesty and a Royal Salute before performing a march past and marching off parade.
On Saturday Ensign Lieutenant Max Martin who carried the King’s Colour today is the Ensign to the Colour on The King’s Birthday Parade tomorrow on Horse Guards in London. After weeks of training and rehearsals for the Army’s most important parade of the year, this was the first occasion he had to hold one of the new Colours.
“The King’s Colour emphasises and symbolises everything that has ever gone before in The Coldstream Guards.”
He said: “The King’s Colour emphasises and symbolises everything that has ever gone before in The Coldstream Guards. The gold embroidered silk of the flag is physically heavy, especially in the flourish, but the symbolic weight is heavier still. It bears 44 of our 113 battle honours: the achievements and sacrifices of countless generations of our forebears. To carry that weight is the privilege of my life, and I will try my utmost to do justice to that great honour.”
The King’s Colour is made of silk damask, with gold thread embroidery and fringe. It bears the eight pointed Star of the Most Noble Order of the Garter awarded to the Regiment’s commander General Monck by King Charles II following his role in ensuring the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. Below that, at its base, is a Sphinx superscribed with ‘Egypt’ and 44 of the 113 battle honours of the Regiment, the first of which is Tangier in 1680 and the last the Gulf in 1991.
These Colours will be borne proudly on ceremonial events for years to come.
Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, Lt Col Ed Michell said: “Being presented New Colours by HM The King on the occasion of the Regiment’s 375th Birthday is an enormous privilege for the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, and every person on parade feels pride at the unique opportunity that they are part of. It also represents a return to the Battalion operating together, as our Companies have been deployed on Operations in Iraq, supporting the effort to train the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and delivering training in West Africa, the Caribbean and the Middle East over the last 18 months. The Battalion will use the opportunity to demonstrate it is Ceremonially second to none as a springboard for improving our Operational excellence through Battalion collective training this summer, which will set us for success on our operational deployment to provide the UK’s Contribution to the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) from September to April next year.”
Immediately after the parade The King met members of the wider ‘Regimental Family’: serving officers and guardsmen, their families, Association veterans, ‘Regimental Servants’ and finally those who have been bereaved.
“The Coldstream Guards have a hard-won reputation born of great sacrifice, courage, esprit de corps and loyal service to our Sovereign. Our Colours embody all of those threads and remind us, as the heirs to that legacy, what is expected of each and everyone of us as we do our duty.”
Colonel Jeremy Bagshaw, Regimental Adjutant of the Coldstream Guards said: “The Coldstream Guards have a hard-won reputation born of great sacrifice, courage, esprit de corps and loyal service to our Sovereign. Our Colours embody all of those threads and remind us, as the heirs to that legacy, what is expected of each and everyone of us as we do our duty.”
Celebrations for this historic moment in the regiment’s history continued at Victoria Barracks with a large afternoon tea reception for service personnel, their friends and families.
Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards and the Band departed for London immediately afterwards – tomorrow they will troop their smart new Colour for the first time in public on Horse Guards Parade in front of a global audience of millions, as they deliver The King’s Birthday Parade.
The King is Head of the Army, but his relationship with The Coldstream Guards is a special one, for they are the Sovereign’s bodyguard. These loyal troops who hail from both the north east and south west of England and from across the wider United Kingdom and Commonwealth, have served the nation in an unbroken thread for 375 years. As well as their impressive ceremonial excellence seen daily guarding the Royal Palaces in London and Windsor, The Coldstream Guards are first and foremost formidable infantry soldiers who, when required, will courageously seek out and destroy the King’s enemies. In their operational role they have fought with distinction and honour in every major conflict since they were raised by Oliver Cromwell in 1650.
The principle of bearing a coloured flag that distinguished one body of fighting troops from another, dates back many millennia. Standards and Colours were used as rallying points on the battlefield, helping troops locate each other and avoid becoming disorientated during the fog of war. The Ensign who had the responsibility of carrying and guarding the Colour became a rank of huge honour and importance as their actions in battle could literally save the regiment and result in combat victory.
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