Sovereign's Birthday

[jf42]

Obviously, this extends beyond the Forum's period but can anyone advise me on the history of the army's celebration of the Sovereign's Birthday.

JF

[tabony]

The Queen's Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour) is held anualy in June, where one of the battalions of Foot Guards "troops" their Royal Colour by parading through the ranks at slow time. This parade dates back to when the colours were used as a rallying point in battle so, everyone had to be able to recognise their own colour. (The colour is a large flag, in the foot guards the Royal Colour is crimson and the Regimental is the union flag. In line regiments the union flag is the Royal and the Regimental is in the facing colours of the regiment, hence "Colours")
Since the restoration of 1660 the Sovereigns Birthday Parade was a random event, there are records of 1748 and 1760 for example. It was not until the Regency of 1811 that it became an regular thing and took part every year, except for the two world wars.(although I seem to remember seeing photos of a khaki KBP in 1939).
There are very few changes to the parade except for rifle drill and uniforms. One interesting thing is the "Spinning Wheel" where the massed bands of the foot guards have to change direction on the spot, the drill for this move isn't written down but is passed from one drum major to the next!
The Household Cavalry "Rank" (walk) and trot past. I recent years the King's Troop RHA have tacken part in the rank past, which means the words of command that used to begin "Household Cavalry" are now "Mounted Troops"!

Martin

[jf42]

The creation of the SBP as an annual event from circa 1811 onwards is interesting.

'Trooping the Colour', though, was a Regimental ceremony that evolved independent of the Sovereign's Birthday, was it not? I wonder how late the ceremony with which we are familiar took shape.

In 1845, Roland or Rowan Cameron, a former sergeant in the 42nd RHR wrote down his version of how the Black Watch came to wear the 'Red Hackle' and included this account of a SBP in the late C18th: "On the 4th June, 1795, when quartered at Royston, near Cambridge, after fireing three Rounds in Honour of H.M. George 3rd's birthday, a box containing the Feathers arrived on the Common, which were distributed to the Officers and Men; the Commanding Officer giving a Speech on the Subject of which the Honour of Wearing the Red Feather was conferred on the 42nd Regiment for their gallant conduct on the 4th January, 1795. The Officers and Men placed the Feathers in their Bonnets and marched into Royston.”

The memoir, one of a pair quoted for a hundred years as the established story of the Black Watch 'Red Hackle,' is no longer seen as reliable but Pensioner Cameron's recollection of firing a feu de joie at the SBP, and quite possibly the arrival of a box of red feathers on parade, is likely to be accurate.

[tabony]

Yes all regiments did and I suppose still can "troop" their colours, which is why it's generaly just civvies and the BBC that use the name "Trooping the Colour" The Household Division always call it "The Queen's Birthday Parade" or "QBP".
Not that I've looked into it at all but going from pictures of previouse parades, I would think that it is only since WW1 that the parade has taken place at Horse Guards Parade. There have been SBPs at Windsor Great Park and Hyde Park for example.
I wonder if the 42nd just recieved new red hackle on that parade, which being presented by the King then made something official that had been worn anyway?

Martin

[colsjt65]

The sovereign's birthday has been marked by the British military all around the world, not just with a SBP. This from the New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait [Wellington] Guardian, 26 May 1849 -

LEVEE.
Last Thursday being the anniversary of her Majesty's birthday, the day was celebrated with the customary honours. His Excellency held a levee at Government House. The grenadier company of the 65th regt., under the command of Captain O'Connell, Lieut. Gordon, and Ensign Thelwall, was drawn up on the lawn in front of the reception room as a guard of honour, the band of the 65th regt. was also in attendance. The following gentlemen attended the levee ...
The 65th regt. was reviewed by Lieut. Col. Gold at Ihorndon Flat, and a feu de joie fired in honor of the occasion.
On Thursday evening the Sergeants of the 65th Regt. celebrated her Majesty's birthday by a banquet.

Later Queen's birthdays also record a Grand Military ball to mark the occasion.

[tabony]

I believe every British army unit marks the Queen's "actualy" birthday, even if it's just raising a glass! but I believe it is only the Household Division that also parades for the official birthday. By the way when we come of QBP we are handed two cans of beer, supposedly one from Her Majesty(The Colonel) and one from the Colonel(The C.O) . I always drank one can and give the other to the horse!

Martin

[jf42]

Yes all regiments did and I suppose still can "troop" their colours, which is why it's generaly just civvies and the BBC that use the name "Trooping the Colour" The Household Division always call it "The Queen's Birthday Parade" or "QBP".

Indeed!

Not that I've looked into it at all but going from pictures of previouse parades, I would think that it is only since WW1 that the parade has taken place at Horse Guards Parade. There have been SBPs at Windsor Great Park and Hyde Park for example.

That would make sense. The creation by George the Fifth of the 'House of Windsor'' brand and all that.

I wonder if the 42nd just recieved new red hackle on that parade, which being presented by the King then made something official that had been worn anyway?

Yes, the red feathers said to have been presented to the 42nd in June 1795 would seem to be the revival of a custom that started in America during the AWI but which for some reason then lapsed. Tales of the feathers being conferred as an honour for gallantry during a minor action at the Dutch village of Geldermelsen in January 1795 are not borne out by official dispatches. There is no indication and little likelihood, either, that the feathers presented that summer were a gift from the King although by the late C19th that was being stated as fact.

Regimental-pattern hat feathers, despite being thoroughly non-regulation, had become commonplace by the 1790s and red feathers were not uncommon, particularly in Highland regiments. The red feather supposedly ordered for the Black Watch in America twenty years before by Sir William Howe, was adopted for administrative reasons and when that requirement ended it was apparently retained simply for decorative purposes- albeit serving as a memento, too, of steadfast service in a lost cause. Most likely, it was on that basis that the custom was revived in the summer of 1795, when the Regiment received its first new clothing in two years, having returned in rags after a hard and fruitless winter campaign in Holland. Customarily, for regiments ‘at home’ the annual clothing issue was first worn on parade on the occasion of the King’s Birthday.

The non-regulation feathers may have been a gift from the sovereign, but that seems unlikely. More probably, they were presented with the compliments of the Commanding Officer, perhaps at Regimental expense; a gesture of appreciation for the fortitude and discipline shown by the men in the depths of that awful winter on the Dutch steppe. Perhaps rousing remarks made by the CO that day in June, recalling the trouncing of a superior French force at Geldermalsen the previous January, created the impression in the minds of some young soldiers that the feather was being presented in honour of that achievement; and with the passage of years the impression grew into a conviction.

The feather did not receive Royal sanction, apparently, until 1802 when the 42nd, returning in triumph from Egypt, paraded in review before the King. At the Colonel’s request, King George is said to have granted his Royal Highlanders permission to continue wearing their red feather despite a new regulation feather of white and red being ordered for all infantry during their absence. This privilege granted by the King was never recorded officially, however, - the CO, Charles Dickson, being rather fond of his port, it is said- so when in 1822 a badly worded order was issued appearing to prescribe a red feather for the bonnets of all Highland officers, a clarification was soon issued declaring the ‘red vulture feather’ to be for the exclusive use of the Royal Highland Regiment but in the process it was discovered there was in fact no official authority for the Black Watch to wear their ‘Red Heckle’.

In response to an discreet enquiry as to “ from what period and by what authority, the 42nd Regiment had worn the red feather”, Robert Dick, CO of the 42nd at the time, explained that, all the old records having been lost, they had no way of answering the question. A equally discreet enquiry from the CO to Major General James Stirling, former CO and the longest serving officer in the Regiment, elicited his assurance that the red feather was adopted in America around 1776, at the orders of Sir William Howe, who wished to promote uniformity in the headgear of the elite Reserve brigade to which the Black Watch were attached, and had been worn “ever since.”

Perhaps this answer wasn’t satisfactory, for the General's letter appears to have been ignored and lay forgotten in archives for over 160 years. Meanwhile, a terse statement from David Stewart, author of the new Regimental history published earlier that same year of 1822, stating that in the year of 1795 the Royal Highland Regiment assumed the red feather but giving no reasons, left the field open for the Geldermelsen story finally to take seed in the 1870s and flourish for a hundred years.

That explains, in part, why Red Hackle Day is celebrated on January the 5th and not on the Sovereign's Birthday!

[jf42]

I believe every British army unit marks the Queen's "actualy" birthday, even if it's just raising a glass! but I believe it is only the Household Division that also parades for the official birthday.

Since the last war- proper war- the Berlin Brigade always held a Sovereign's Birthday Parade. There is a fine recording of the Black Watch 'Trooping the Colour' in Berlin on the QBP in 1958 (I have also seen footage of the 1st LI and 1BW trooping at the QBP in Berlin from 1989. A blend of two fine traditions). I suspect that was the case in Hong Kong as well.