HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN WILL VISIT THE GRENADIER GUARDS AT LILLE BARRACKS
Tuesday 31st January 2023
The Queen, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, will visit Lille Barracks. During the visit, Her Majesty will meet members of the regiment, present medals and meet families.
In December 2022, the Queen was appointed Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. This will be Her Majesty’s first visit to the Grenadier Guards since her appointment to the role.
Throughout the last five years, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards have been employed across a plethora of military tasks. In 2018 the Battalion was deployed simultaneously to Iraq, Afghanistan and South Sudan and returned in time to troop the colour at The Queen’s Birthday Parade in 2019.
More recently, Grenadiers have conducted major training exercises in Belize, the Falkland Islands, Kenya and Thailand. The battalion is now part of the 4th Light Brigade Combat Team and has elements deployed to Iraq to provide protection to the international coalition deployed under Op INHERENT RESOLVE.
Members of The King’s Company (Grenadier Guards) returned from this deployment in September 2022 to provide the bearer party for the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Looking ahead into 2023, the battalion is very much looking forward to supporting state ceremonial duties in the coming months and undertaking a major training exercise in Kenya in the autumn.
The 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, later known as the Grenadier Guards, have served the sovereign and the nation in an unbroken thread for more than three and a half centuries. They have fought in every major conflict and been awarded 78 honorary distinctions (commonly known as battle honours), forty-five of which appear on their regimental colours (flags).
In their ceremonial role Grenadier Guardsmen are recognised on parade by a white plume on the left side of their bearskin caps; their uniforms bearing symbols of a grenade ‘fired proper’ and buttons arranged singly. Their regimental motto is: Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense – the motto of the Order of the Garter – “Shame on him who thinks evil of it”.
