BBC Television - Trooping the Colour - 7 June 1951

BBC Television coverage of Trooping the Colour which takes place on Horse Guards Parade.

Crowds lining the route listen to music performed by Massed and Mounted Bands of around 400 musicians in total. Events at Buckingham Palace after the Queen's return include another march past by the entire Household Division, a 41-gun salute in the adjacent Green Park, and a flypast by the Royal Air Force. This is followed by the usual Changing of the Guard.

Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and the British Army. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although the roots go back much earlier. On battlefields, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points. Consequently, regiments would have their ensigns slowly march with their colours between the soldiers' ranks to enable soldiers to recognise their regiments' colours.

Since 1748 Trooping the Colour has also marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign. It is held in London annually on the second Saturday in June.

From the reign of King Edward VII, the Sovereign has taken the salute in person. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.

However, in 1951 King George VI was to ill to attend the ceremony (he later had a lung removed in September 1951 due to lung cancer), so HRH The Princess Elizabeth (the heiress presumptive) took the King's place at the ceremony.

The King died eight months later and Britain then entered a new Elizabethian age.

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

http://www.apts.org.uk

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[nylonTS]

I have just watched the parde today and im sure the parade is getting smaller by the year

there is a lot more Guardsmen on this video than there was today about half I think less than 1000

[aptsarchive]

@nylonTS I suppose smaller parades are a consequence of government cut-backs!

[GaryGib96]

why couldnt the King be there ?

[aptsarchive]

@GaryGib96 As it says in the description, he was seriously ill due to lung cancer (although that wasn't known at the time). He had a lung removed in September 1951 and died of a thrombosis the following February.

[RICHIEPR63]

the queen used to look magnificent in full uniform

[aptsarchive]

Many thanks for your comments.

I agree with you, it's not the same with the Queen in a carriage!

[tom24239891]

@nylonTS

after the 1st reduction in force when the Gren Gds, Cold Gds and Scots Gds lost there 2nd Battalions it went from 8 guards on parade to 6 guards

[BritainF0rever]

@nylonTS At the moment there is 1100 Guardsmen on Parade, 300 horses and 400 musicians, exactly the same :)

[oldtvhistory]

This kinescope footage looks quite good with the tones and contrast, makes it easy to imagine how this footage would of looked live or recorded to 2 inch quad videotape! This is something worth putting through the VidFIRE process!

[laleelala]

Guardsmen were on the whole taller then and a lot smarter..i followed my Dad and my uncles into the Irish Guards..Defence cuts and the dropping of the height restrictions...tut..

[charliesacoolkid]

@nylonTS ah right might be due to soldier tours in afghanistan? but either way you're right its alot smaller than it used to be. :(

[nylonTS]

@charliesacoolkid Hi No Im talking about the Foot Guards on parde this week there were seven Guards If you look at 1992 its Eleven guards who Trooped the Colour

[charliesacoolkid]

@nylonTS its smaller also because the royal horse artillery aren't there because of an infection outbreak among the horses

[nylonTS]

@aptsarchive yes i think your right i thought the same

Thank TS