To all customers and friends

On Saturday 16th June this year, and as a direct result of recently supplying Nijmegen Company, Grenadier Guards with Slade & Wallace equipment, Judy and I were lucky enough to obtain tickets for the Trooping of the Colour ceremony. This year Nijmegen Company were trooping the colours of the 2nd.Battalion Grenadier Guards. In previous years we have had tickets for the seating enclosures backing on to Downing Street. This year we had "Standing" tickets in front of the WW2 citadel. Our slight disappointment at not being able to park our bums on seats was quickly replaced with the realization that we would be much nearer the action, and our position at the junction of the entrance road and the main parade ground (Horse Guards) meant that all participants had to pass within almost touching distance. This year's event was being threatened by torrential rain, and one hour before the parade began, we had witnessed incredible rain which was bouncing off London's pavements. The Guards were marched on wearing capes, which were then removed at the order with a spectacular swirling flourish. The capes were then collected by troops in Landrovers before the parade began.
Eventually HM The Queen arrived in her ivory mounted phaeton and the ceremony proper began. A huge black cloud had been taking up more and more of the overhead sky, and once Her Majesty had completed her inspection of her Guards, the heavens opened!!. It rained like I have never seen rain.  The sound of the rain alone completely obliterated the sound of the massed bands. A young Scots Guardsman who was standing next to us on stretcher duty shared our large umbrella and after a while I noticed that the red dye in his tunic had run into the white piping. If you multiply that by the number of men on parade, I think that somebody is about to win a contract for a lot of replacement tunics! The rain eventually eased and the event finished in brilliant sunshine. I later saw a recording of the television coverage which showed feet marchi ng through pools of water, but never really conveyed the reality of what it must have been like to maintain incredible discipline and formation in the face of what can only be described as monsoon conditions.
As I have always considered the Guards and the Household Cavalry to be the last remains of our Victorian Army, it prompted me to remember that these men were maintaining amazing discipline whilst buttoned up in  wringing wet tunics and bearskin caps just as their predecessors must have done whilst engaging the enemy in Empire days.
Our particular vantage point did not allow us to take good photos of the general parade, but on the other hand we were able to take some close-ups which are attached'

The photos are:

The Guards arriving along the entrance road and capes being collected

HM The Queen followed by the Royal Colonels and Royal Horse Artillery

HRH The Princess Royal and the other Royal Colonels and the parade leaving Horse Guards 

Best wishes
Keith Perks