GUARDS MAGAZINE v
THE GUARDS MAGAZINE JOURNAL OF THE HOUSEHOLD DIVISION
No: 211 Spring 2025
CONTENTS
EDITOR’S NOTES ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Ceremonial Changes in London and Windsor .............................................................................................. 19 Guards Training Company Presentation of the New Company Colour by HRH The Duke Of Edinburgh, Thursday 23rd January 2025 ......................................................................................................................... 21 A Soldier’s Return: The Falkland Islands - 42 Years On, November 2024................................................... 23 The Coldstream Returns to Bosnia ............................................................................................................... 30 Freedom of Arras Conferred on the Welsh Guards, Sunday 1st September 2024 ........................................ 33 A Delivery to the Front Line - Ukraine - 2024 ............................................................................................. 37 The World’s Toughest Row: The Atlantic, December 2024 - January 2025 ................................................. 40 Wargaming in the Coldstream Guards: Strategy, Welfare, and Camaraderie ............................................... 44 OPERATION SHADER 19: United Kingdom Mobility Company (Kurdistan) No 1 Company Group, 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards 2024-2025 ............................................................................................... 46 Exercise MAYAN WARRIOR: Mayan Musings .......................................................................................... 49 Exercise DESERT KHANJAR 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, October 2024 ................................................. 51 FPV Drone Racing ........................................................................................................................................ 54 A Journey to Thailand: Bridging Cultures Through Ceremonial Excellence ............................................... 56 Becoming the 6th Battalion of the Foot Guards: Three Years as the Guards Reserve .................................. 58 Three Times the Person: A Reservist in The London Guards ....................................................................... 59 Trust in God and the Mauser - Vertroue in God en die Mauser .................................................................... 60 50 Years On - African Swan .......................................................................................................................... 64
NEWS Honours and Awards ........................................................................................................................................ 8 Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Commissions ......................................................................................... 9 People, Places, and Events ............................................................................................................................. 10 Sport .............................................................................................................................................................. 68 Regimental Intelligence ................................................................................................................................ 75 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR .................................................................................................................. 118 BOOK REVIEWS ..................................................................................................................................... 118 OBITUARIES ............................................................................................................................................ 124 Covers: Front: VE Day 80 commemorations, Monday 5th May 2025. The Tri-Service procession in the Mall moving towards the
Queen Victoria Memorial, where Their Majesties The King and Queen, Members of The Royal Family, the Prime Minister, and
Second World War Veterans, watched from a platform in front of Buckingham Palace.
Ministry of Defence. Photographer: Cpl Tomas Barnard RAF
Back: VE Day 80 commemorations, Monday 5th May 2025. The procession in Parliament Square, with some 1,300 members of the Armed Forces and youth groups, on parade prior to the formal beginning of the commemorations. At 12 noon, the actor Timothy Spall
read Winston Churchill’s ‘Second Ministry of Health Speech’ delivered on 8th May 1945: ‘My dear friends…this is your hour… this
is not a victory of any party or any class… it is a victory of the Great British Nation as a whole…’. The Garrison Sergeant Major, addressing Normandy veteran Alan Kennett, 100, then asked for permission to start the parade: ‘Good afternoon Sir. Thank you and
your generation for securing our freedom eighty years ago. May I have your permission to start the parade, Sir please’.
Ministry of Defence. Photographer: Rory Arnold
