RAF FLYPAST FINALE SALUTES THE QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY

Pictured: The Red Arrows fly over Buckingham Palace MILITARY EXCELLENCE CELEBRATES MONARCH’S OFFICIAL BIRTHDAY The Army performed its finest display of military pageantry to celebrate the Official Birthday of Her Majesty The Queen today on Horse Guards Parade in London. One thousand one hundred soldiers from the Household Division were joined by almost 250 immaculately groomed military horses, six blindingly polished First World War 13-Pounder Guns and 350 military musicians at the ancient annual ceremony known as Trooping the Colour. The Royal family watched from the balcony of Wellington’s office, and more than 8,500 guests including the Prime Minister, foreign dignitaries, and Defence Chiefs of Staff, filled the stands on Horse Guards, while tens of thousands of the public lined the route, as The Royal Colonels: The Duke of Edinburgh, The Duke of Kent, The Prince of Wales, The Duke of Cambridge, and The Princess Royal, accompanied Her Majesty in stately procession down the Mall to inspect the Parade.The Queen’s Birthday Parade, more popularly known as Trooping the Colour, is a great British tradition and one of the most complex and labour intensive events the military stages. Countless hours of planning and preparation go into making sure that the final result is as close to perfection as humanly possible in honour of Her Majesty, their Colonel in Chief. The Soldiers were on parade in the traditional ceremonial uniforms of the Household Cavalry, Royal Horse Artillery, and Foot Guards. The Welsh Guards were easily identifiable by their green and white plumed bearskins and their buttons in rows of five to indicate their place as the fifth regiment of Foot Guards. All those on parade then processed back down the Mall delivering Her Majesty safely back to Buckingham Palace. As the Royal Family appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to the delight of the thousands crowded round the Queen Victoria Memorial, the Red Arrows performed a flypast.