The Changing of the Guard

The Changing of the Guard, is a popular, some might say too popular, London attraction. The Ceremony takes on a daily basis at 11.30am from the middle of April to July and on alternate days for the rest of the year. (It is cancelled should the famous British “changeable weather rain on the parade, or when major state events are taking place).

On the whole the soldiers whose job it is to guard the Queen and other members of the Royal Family belong to the Household Division which in turn is made up of Seven Regiments. The Household Cavalry Regiment - consisting of The Life Guards (who will be dressed in scarlet tunics), and The Blues and Royals (ho will be wearing blue tunics) can be seen outside the Whitehall entrance to Horse Guards Parade. You can stand alongside them (or at least the horses on which they are mounted) and have your photograph taken. Their guard change takes place every morning at 11am on the large open parade ground of Horse Guards Parade.

Buckingham Palace and the other Royal Palaces (nearby St James’s Palace and Clarence House) are guarded by five Regiments of Foot Guards. These are: The Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards. You can tell which Regiment a soldier belongs to with a click glance at the buttons on his tunic and the colour of the plume on his hat. The Grenadier Guards buttons are in a single line, and the plumes on their hats are white. The Coldstream Guards sport a red plume and buttons in groupings of two. Scots Guards buttons are in threes and they don’t wear a plume. Buttons on an Irish Guards tunic will be in threes, whilst their plumes will be blue. Finally the Welsh guards sport a white/green/white plume and display their tunic buttons in two groups of five.

Most of the year it will be soldiers from these regiments that you will see on guard duty, although, particularly in August, regiments from other regiments and even other Commonwealth countries may be substituted.

One thing that might surprise you to learn is that the soldiers you see in front of Buckingham Palace are not merely ceremonial guards, but rather are serving soldiers who also perform duties all over the world. They are some of the best and most elite soldiers in the British Army and as such they might be called away for operational duties at any time and any where.