Figure 74

Presentation of new Colours to The Queen’s Regiment, 4th May 1974, Armoury House London This photo shows the old Colours being marched off parade for the last time., these were the Colours of 1st Bn The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment, the Colour Party being Lt P R P Swanson and 2/Lt G K Yonwin. The escorts were CSM M D Maloney BEM, C/Sgt A Hill and C/Sgt B Rawlings. The remaining Colours were 1st Bn The Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment, the 1st Bn The Royal Sussex Regiment, the 1st Bn The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own), 4th Bn The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment (TA).

After the reorganisation of the Home Counties Brigade on a regimental basis in 1967, the old Colours continued in service until New Colours were presented to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the 5th (Volunteer) Battalions of the new Regiment by HM Queen Margarethe II of Denmark at Armoury House, London, on 4th May 1974. The 6th/7th (Volunteer) Battalion had to wait until 1981, when they were presented with new Colours by Lavinia, Duchess of Norfolk, at Ardingly on 16th July.

For the first time I have mentioned all battalions, Regular and Territorial, at the same time. This is because these Colours marked the first time that the Colours of all battalions were to be identical except for distinguishing battalion numerals.

The Queen’s Colour of the 1st Battalion was the same in form as the old Queen’s Surrey one except that the title roundel now reads “The Queen’s Regiment”, and the forty Battle Honours contained many not previously seen. A list of these may be found in Soldiers of the Queen by JP Riley. The Regimental Colour was again blue, with the battalion numeral in the first canton. The four corner badges were now the badges of the four Home Counties regiments in order of seniority, while the Naval Crown and the Sphinx returned to their accustomed places at lower left and right of the Colour. In the centre was again the Garter within a red roundel bearing the regimental title. However, the cipher was replaced by a Dragon and Prince of Wales’s feathers. The cipher moved to a position at bottom centre of the Colour between the two distinctions. The motto on the Union wreath was now Unconquered I Serve, while the laurel wreath bore many new Battle Honours which may be found in Soldiers of the Queen. These Colours are shown as figures 75 and 76.

An interesting custom grew up in the 1st Battalion of dressing the Regimental Colour to show the Battle Honour TANGIER 1662-80. As this means dressing the Colour slightly off true, the author presumes that this was done deliberately, out of pride in the Army’s oldest Battle Honour. The Colour thus dressed is shown in the Centre-fold.