Her Majesty The Queen, Colonel-in-Chief will present a new standard to the Royal Tank Regiment at Windsor Castle
Wednesday 25th April 2018
Her Majesty The Queen, Colonel-in-Chief, will present a new standard to the Royal Tank Regiment at a parade in St. George’s Hall, Windsor Castle on Wednesday 25th April.
Her Majesty will be met in the Grand Reception Room by Major General John Patterson, Colonel Commandant. The Queen will then enter St. George’s Hall and proceed to the Dais for the Royal Salute and the uncasing of the new standard.
Her Majesty will descend the Dais to present the new standard, before returning to make a short address.
Following the parade The Queen will join an official photograph with Officers and Warrant Officers of the Regiment. After which Her Majesty will move to the Grand Reception Room to meet members of the Regimental Family.
Forged during the First World War, the Royal Tank Regiment is the oldest tank unit in the world. Since the Second World War, the Regiment has deployed to almost every major conflict.
In May 1958, Her Majesty The Queen, Colonel-in-Chief, approved the award of Battle Honours to the Regiment, together with the design of a Standard upon which selected Honours were to be emblazoned.
In October 1960, The Queen presented the first Standards to the Regiment’s eight battalions at Buckingham Palace. At the occasion, The Queen recalled that her grandfather, King George V, had seen the first tank demonstrated at Hatfield Park in 1916 and, as the Regiment’s first Colonel-in-Chief, had embodied the Royal Tank Corps in the Regular Army in 1923.
Since 1960, Her Majesty has twice presented new Standards to the Regiment: in 1985 in Sennelager, Germany, to the Regiment’s five battalions; and in 2008 at Buckingham Palace to the remaining two battalions, the 1st Royal Tank Regiment and the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment.
In August 2014, the Regiment amalgamated to become The Royal Tank Regiment. The Standards of the previous two battalions have been carried on parade since then.
