Today is the King's Birthday Parade, a.k.a. Trooping the Colour. The 1st Battalion, Welsh Guards were trooping their colour. I have watched this event almost every year for nearly fifty years and have never failed to enjoy it. Today's parade with King Charles III was a real pleasure to watch. If you have never watched it, I can thoroughly recommend it as an example of military pageantry, music and history all rolled into one. It is, I would think, unrivalled in the world today. It has evolved over the years I have watched - mainly in regard to numbers involved and the sequence of movements - but it is still pretty much as it was when arranged in its present format by King George V before the First World War, although the event itself dates back several centuries.  I did get taken to see a rehearsal for the parade when I was a small boy - one of my grandfathers had been a Grenadier Guardsman and got tickets - and I have never forgotten that special day out!

Photo courtesy of www.royal.uk.