Trooping Of The Colour

TROOPING OF THE COLOUR

The Trooping of The Colour is a peculiarly British pageant that is held on the occasion of the Queen’s official birthday. The Queen has two birthdays, one to celebrate the anniversary of her birth on April the twenty-first 1926, followed by her official birthday which is always in early June. With two birthdays a year, some would expect the Queen to be one hundred and sixty-eight years old, but only one of them counts towards aging and she is a youthful eighty-four. The official birthday was created to enable sovereigns who were born in winter to enjoy a day of pageantry in summer weather. The official birthday is otherwise useful, particularly as the British do not have a national day. The official birthday is customarily celebrated with lavish parties in all British embassies, to entertain diplomats from other foreign missions, who generally reciprocate on their own particular country’s national day. The Queen has only missed one Trooping of The Colour, in 1955, when it was cancelled due to a national rail strike.

The Trooping of The Colour dates to the reign of Charles II in the seventeenth century. ‘The Colours’ were the brightly coloured flags of a battalion.  The colours were used as a rallying point in battle, much in the same way as the Roman Eagle galvanized the troops during the campaigns of imperial Rome. The colours were regularly brought out in front of the soldiers to ensure that every man would be familiar with those of his own regiment. Although first mentioned in 1748, The Trooping of The Colour became specifically linked to the Sovereign’s birthday on the accession of George III in 1760. Later, George IV made them an annual event. The pomp has changed very little down the years.

The two hundred years old ceremony begins with the Queen riding in procession from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade. Horse Guards Parade is to the west of ‘Horse Guards’ the name of the building that stands on the site of the old tiltyard for the ancient Palace of Whitehall. Horse Guards is surmounted by a fine clock tower and on the clock face, at the hour of two, a black dot is to be seen. The black dot commemorates the momentous occasion in British history, when at that hour on the thirtieth of January 1649, Charles I was executed from a scaffold positioned opposite, at the Palace Of Whitehall.

As the clock on Horse Guards building strikes eleven the royal procession arrives to Horse Guards Parade where the Queen finds the brigade of Guards of the Household Cavalry awaiting her. The Queen takes the Royal Salute, which is followed by a display of marching guards and the ‘trooping of the colour’ of a selected regiment. Only battalions of infantry regiments carry colours. During the proceedings, the Queen leads an inspection of her personal troops in the centre the parade ground. All the troops are fully trained and operational. At one stage, the six Foot Guard companies take a specific shape, echoing the ‘Hollow Square’ that in battle would have stood to protect the colour.

In the earlier years of her reign, the Queen rode side-saddle as she inspected the troops. With the retirement of her favourite horse in 1987, the Queen chose the moment to attend the spectacle in a carriage rather than on horseback. The event usually has over fourteen hundred officers and men on parade, four hundred musicians from ten different bands in attendance together with corps of drummers. In very hot weather it has been known for guardsmen to faint, after suffering heat stroke from the heavy uniforms, just to be left prostrate between their colleagues still standing rigidly at attention.

At the end, the Queen leads a contingent of guards back to Buckingham Palace and joins other members of the Royal Family on the palace balcony and the entire parade once again marches past in salute. At one o’ clock the royals watch an RAF flypast. Meanwhile, opposite Buckingham Palace in Green Park The King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, fire a forty-one gun salute and a second gun salute is performed at the Tower Of London.

Trooping of The Colour takes place on the second or third Saturday of June, always starting at 11am. In 2010, the Trooping of The Colour takes place on Saturday 12^th of June. The Colour will be trooped by the First Battalion of Grenadier Guards. The monarch’s spectacular official birthday parade can be enjoyed by all as tickets for the event are by ballot only. Applications must arrive in January or February of each year. Those successful in the ballot are invited to buy tickets with many people  traveling from the four compass points of the world to witness the event. To apply for a ticket, write to: The Brigade Major,
Headquarters Household Division, Horseguards,
 Whitehall, London
SW1A 2AX
United Kingdom. Many spectators line up along The Mall, where there is free viewing although it is advisable to arrive early. There are also rehearsals held on both of the two Saturdays preceding the event which can be viewed from afar.

Where to view Trooping Of The Colour and video clips of London
London in Motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Trooping Of The Colour’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.