His Majesty King Charles III has presented new standards and colours to the Royal Navy, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and Grenadier Guards from the British Army, and the Royal Air Force in Buckingham Palace today.
The four emblems have been specially produced for His Majesty’s Coronation owing to their special relevance to the Sovereign.
The Royal Navy; the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment; the King’s Company of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards; and the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) King’s Colour Squadron paraded into Buckingham Palace where their Colours were consecrated by an Armed Forces chaplain and presented by The King.
Standards and Colours cannot be used on parade (or in battle) until they have been consecrated, so two traditional ceremonies of prayers and blessings were held in Buckingham Palace today for the presentation of the ceremonial flags of all three services.
The blessing was given to the Standards, Colours, and all who will bear and serve under them.
Standards are Royal, so carried in the presence of the Sovereign; Colours are borne by the Sovereign’s forces. For example, “The King’s Company Colour, Royal Standard of the Regiment”, is the Company’s Colour, but His Majesty The King’s Standard in battle or on ceremony (when with His company).
The first ceremony was the most intimate and took place in the Buckingham Palace Quadrangle. Twenty-eight mounted troops from The Life Guards, The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, left their barracks in Knightsbridge, and made their way in glittering ceremonial procession on their immaculately groomed horses, down Constitution Hill and through the gates of the Palace to take up positions in anticipation of the ceremony.
The King’s arrival in the Quadrangle for the presentation of the new Life Guards’ Standard was announced by a fanfare performed by the State Trumpeters of the Band of the Household Cavalry.
Then His Majesty received a Royal Salute from the Life Guards. Back at the Palace, in the first tri-service ceremony of its kind, The King’s Company of the Grenadier Guards joined personnel from the Royal Navy and The King’s Colour Squadron of the Royal Air Force on the North Lawn of Buckingham Palace as each service prepared to receive their new Colours.
Her Majesty The Queen Consort was made Regimental Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in December last year, and She joined the King for the second Colours presentation ceremony.
After The King was presented with the new Colours, He handed them formally to each service, before returning to the dais, where His Majesty then addressed all those on parade.
Their Majesties then received a final Royal Salute, when the newly consecrated and granted Colours were lowered to him in salute for their first time, before the parades of Sailors, Soldiers, and RAF Personnel marched back to Wellington Barracks proudly bearing their new Colours.
