For
the brief period during which I served my Queen and Country I was in the RAF.
Part of that choice was family links. My great grandfather had been a founder
member of the Royal Flying Corp and my father was in the RAF during World War
II. My passion was flying.
The
other aspect of the RAF was that nobody expected you to be any good at drill.
The present day air force is very different to the one I joined but there was a
casualness and rakishness about the Brylcreme Boys which didn’t apply to the
other services.
Just
as well as my sad attempts at drill were carried out well inside the perimeter
fence at RAF St Mawgen. It was suggested I should take part in the Royal Albert
Hall Remembrance Day ceremony and also a parade by the RAF Memorial near
Whitehall. Sadly I pulled a leg muscle on both occasions.
So it
was with some interest that I watched the Royal Gibraltar Regiment going
through its paces on the war memorial side of the runway in recent weeks. What
struck me as odd at the time was they were there in the morning and then in the
afternoon. Well changing the guard outside the Convent, parades for the
Governor and firing off gun salutes are meat and drink to these soldiers – so
why the intensive training?
Well
now we know. They have honoured Gibraltar by their precision and
professionalism on the large parade ground outside Buckingham Palace with the
world watching. However whilst we should be proud, we shouldn’t be surprised.
The Royal Gibraltar Regiment was simply doing its job.
The
RGR isn’t a Dad’s Army troop made up of local people who are prepared to defend
the Rock if need be. They are as much a key part of the modern, highly
professional British Army as any other regiment or unit.
The
modern history of the then Gibraltar Regiment started in 1971 when conscription
ended on the Rock. The Regiment was a Territorial Army unit supported by a small permanent
cadre and was made up of a rifle company, an artillery battery and an air
defence troop.
With the
withdrawal of the British Army’s regular infantry battalion 20 years later the
Regiment was reformed as an infantry unit and it assumed the role of the major
army unit in Gibraltar.
Moving on to 1999 and the Queen conferred
the ‘Royal’ prefix to the Regiment’s title. By this time the Regiment was a
regular light infantry battalion with a TA element and it regularly undertook
exercises around the world. Members of the Regiment frequently deployed on
operations in support of the UK’s interests and the Regiment formed an
excellent working relationship with the Moroccan Brigade d’Infanterie
Parachutiste.
Whilst the RGR still has
responsibility for defending the Rock is also has an important bomb disposal
capability: the only British Army infantry regiment to do so. It sends training
teams to African countries; its troops have been involved in the invasion of
Iraq and on operations in Afghanistan.
In short the
regiment may punch above its weight but it is as much a part of the modern
British Army as any other regiment. Hence it is as capable of mounting an
impressive guard at Buckingham Palace as it is of disposing of a bomb in
Gibraltar or going on patrol in Afghanistan. It’s what the boys and girls of
the Royal Gibraltar Regiment do. They made Gibraltar proud in London but in all
honesty we should be equally proud of them all the time.
