Trooping the Colour 2026 (and some family history).

 

Image courtesy of tripologiste.com.

Yesterday was Trooping the Colour - First Battalion, Grenadier Guards were parading their new King's colour to celebrate the King's official birthday. If you missed it, you can see it on BBC iPlayer, with or without commentary: Trooping the Colour - BBC iPlayer

One of my grandfathers was in the Grenadier Guards before WW2. He was called up in 1939 - he still had a few months left in the reserve, soldiers did three years active, nine years reserve with the Guards in those days - leaving behind my grandmother with two small children (my mother, aged 2, and her older brother), and went off the France to join the 3rd Battalion near Louvain in Belgium. He made it back after the disasters of May and June 1940, went directly to hospital at Lincoln, and was then released from service. He was then with the police force for the duration of the war, serving with the Buckinghamshire constabulary, as it was then (now Thames Valley force). I was too young to ask about his experiences when he was alive, but he never volunteered to tell anything about it. He did march in a Trooping of the Colour when he was doing his active service before the war and my mother has a treasured photograph of him in full dress uniform, complete with bearskin and Lee-Enfield .303 rifle.

He was not the only member of my family that I know to have served with the army. One of my great uncles - Bill - served in WW1, but was posted to Ireland for the duration. His wife, Edith, was the daughter of a late Victorian and Edwardian army soldier, who retired as a sergeant and P.T. instructor. Another great uncle - Fred - was with the Kent Cycle Battalion and was sent to India for WW1, being a Territorial. He sadly died en route back home in 1919. My father - John - served with the Royal Horse Artillery from 1950 to 1953 as a light AA gunner in Hong Kong during the Korean War, watching the Chinese across the border. He was called up for the Suez Crisis in 1956, being a reservist, and went to Egypt. My mother  managed to get him to tell her some of his anecdotes of service and write them down.

My younger sister's first husband - Simon - was in the Royal Air Force; her second husband - Ian - served with the Light Infantry. And her youngest son, my nephew Aaron, is serving in the Army Air Corps at the moment. My wife's father - Herbert - was in the Royal Air Force during WW2 and served in Ceylon, Sri Lanka as it now is, as a wireless operator, flying reconnaissance missions over the Indian Ocean and training other crewmen. Also, her niece's husband - Paul - is a sergeant with the Royal Engineers, and her younger sister's husband - Vaughan - was in the Parachute Regiment. There may have been others, but those are the most immediate ones I remember; my younger sister does all the family tree stuff and gradually unearths interesting details.

Nobody has served in the Royal Navy, as far as we know, although our most famous family member, on my mother's side, Charles Fish (1840-1915), did have a strong sea connection. He was my great great grandfather and the coxswain of the Ramsgate lifeboat and was the first member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) to be awarded two gold medals for saving lives and service. His most famous exploit was as coxswain of the lifeboat "Bradford" which took a major role in the saving of the survivors of the "Indian Chief" merchant ship in 1881, wrecked in a storm off the Kent coast. He went out on rescues over 350 times and helped to save more than 870 lives.

Charles Fish

(image courtesy of Ramsgate Historical Society)

If you ever feel like supporting a charity, the RNLI relies entirely upon public donations for its work; it is not government funded at all.

RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution - Saving Lives at Sea