A Bristol Army officer will be among 1500 soldiers and 400 musicians who will parade in London for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Birthday Parade on Thursday, June 2. Major Tony Williams, 48, will parade alongside soldiers of the Household Division and The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, as well as the Massed Bands, in front of thousands of spectators in the capital - and millions globally - for the event.
The Queen's Birthday Parade is the Household Division's special opportunity to wish Her Majesty a happy birthday on this unique Platinum Jubilee year. The annual event has marked the official birthday of the monarch for more than 260 years.
As Sovereign, she is Colonel in Chief of the Army and the biggest expert on this parade, which illustrates all that is important about soldiering - discipline, detail, teamwork, commitment and endurance. Swords, medals, buttons and breast plates will shine while horses and soldiers carry out complex military drill manoeuvres to music.
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Major Williams, Director of Music, Band of the Scots Guards has served for 30 years and will march at the rear of the Massed Bands as they provide the rousing military music. And if you were hoping to spot him on the parade coverage, just look out for the only musician on parade without an instrument.
Represented by all the nations of the United Kingdom, the band will perform the spectacle that is the ‘spin wheel’ - an intricate manoeuvre where they carry out a 360 degree turn while marching forward. The drill moves appear in no manuals but is handed down through the centuries to each new generation of bandsmen.
During the parade the world class musicians will walk over 10kms and receive 1,677 words of command.
This year the honour to Troop their Colour falls to the Irish Guards and music includes “Slattery’s Mounted Foot”, a favourite tune of Her Majesty The Queen Mother, “Long Live Elizabeth” in tribute to Her Majesty The Queen, Irish Folk songs, and “Bob’s Own” a new composition just for this event named for the first Colonel of the Irish Guards, Field Marshal Lord Roberts, as well as the reassuringly familiar traditional regimental marches.
British Army Music has been at the forefront of overseas Defence Engagement for many years and Tony has been able to travel the globe in training, performance and engagement roles. There have been numerous highlights in his long and distinguished career, including the liberation of Kuwait 25 commemorations, the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign and being a lead Director on three Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoos, but this is his first Queen’s Birthday Parade.
He said: “I have been lucky enough to meet The Queen on many occasions. Many of which were in her beloved Scotland - Royal Guard Beating Retreats at Balmoral, Royal Week in Edinburgh and engagements at the Palace of Holyrood. It will be a great privilege and honour to be part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations - a very unique occasion that is unlikely to be ever repeated.”
Much of the uniforms draw their relevance from the frontline battlefields of previous centuries and it has been said that the history of the United Kingdom is sewn and woven into the threads of the Birthday Parade. Proudly wearing that uniform Tony, whose long-held ambition to join the Army started after a military band visited his school when he was 13, added: “Coming from humble beginnings to the very pinnacle of an Army Musician’s career, there will be a huge sense of pride not only for me but also my family.
"My Partner Liz, my brother Jason on his 50th birthday weekend and his family will all be seated in the stands watching the parade, during a very special year of celebrations for Her Majesty.”
Immediately following the parade on Horse Guards, Tony will briefly conduct the band on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. Gun Salutes will be fired across the United Kingdom and a spectacular flypast by dozens of aircraft used by the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force on operations around the world, will soar over Buckingham Palace.
Members of the Royal Family who will have returned in the grand military ceremonial procession down The Mall, will watch from the balcony of Buckingham Palace as a breath-taking array of military aircraft including The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team – the Red Arrows – takes to the skies over Central London.
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