At Least He Didn't Collapse From Boredom

[dales]

A guardsman has collapsed during the Trooping of the Colour parade, part of the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations.

The event took place on Horse Guards Parade in central London.

While unidentified soldier's comrades remained still, he was soon attended to by officials and stretchered off the parade ground.



The soldiers wear a heavy uniform and a bearskin ‘Busby’ hat, which is thought to have contributed towards the collapse, in addition to the warm temperatures.


The hats have been worn in the British army since the 1830s.

In January, the Daily Mirror revealed that Ministry of Defence (MoD) spending on the hats – which cost £1,224 each - has increased dramatically in recent years.


The MoD spent £149,379 on 122 of the the hats at the taxpayer’s expense in 2015, the newspaper reported.

There have been celebrations throughout the weekend. On Friday, a member of the RAF collapsed while waiting outside St Paul’s cathedral for a service of the Queen.

[MajGenl.Meade]

No need for alarm! It's not a busby.



Those are Scots Guards (buttons in sets of three) and they wear a bearskin (#13 in the photo but the buttons are obscured).



The chap in this photo #24 Royal Horse Artillery is wearing a busby. This unit sometimes does provide mounted horse guards for royal occasions but they don't do all that marching around in red tunics.

The modern British busby is worn with full dress by the Waterloo Band of The Rifles, the Royal Horse Artillery and ceremonial detachments at regimental expense. In its hussar version it is now made of black nylon fur, although Bandmasters still retain the original animal fur.

The busby should not be mistaken for the much taller bearskin cap, worn most notably by the five regiments of Foot Guards of the Household Division (Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards). Around 1900 the word "busby" was used colloquially to denote the tall bear and racoonskin "caps" worn by foot guards and fusiliers and the feather bonnets of Highland infantry. This usage is now obsolete.

[rubato]

But what is the symbolism? 1 more year till she croaks? Abdicates? One royal will pack it in next year? In the next year (when they vote for Brexit) the UK will reach their nadir of unimportance in world affairs?

Enquiring minds want to know.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Enquiring minds want to know.


yrs,
rubato

But do you want to know as well?

Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies.

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 a Saturday in June on Horse Guards Parade by St. James's Park, and coincides with the publication of the Birthday Honours List. Among the audience are the Royal Family, invited guests, ticketholders and the general public. The ceremony is broadcast live by the BBC within the UK and is also shown in Germany and Belgium.

The Queen travels down The Mall from Buckingham Palace in a royal procession with a sovereign's escort of Household Cavalry (mounted troops or horse guards). After receiving a royal salute, she inspects her troops of the Household Division, both foot guards and horse guards, and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. Each year, one of the foot-guards regiments is selected to troop its colour through the ranks of guards. Then the entire Household Division assembly conducts a march past the Queen, who receives a salute from the saluting base. Parading with its guns, the King's Troop takes precedence as the mounted troops perform a walk-march and trot-past.

The music is provided by the massed bands of the foot guards and the mounted bands of the Household Cavalry, together with a Corps of Drums, and occasionally pipers, totalling approximately 400 musicians.

Returning to Buckingham Palace, the Queen watches a further march-past from outside the gates. Following a 41-gun salute by the King's Troop in Green Park, she leads the Royal Family on to the palace balcony for a Royal Air Force flypast.

It's one of those historical things rubato, one of those colourful, cultural things, the absence of which makes your bland and boring little life so culturally empty of interest.

[Guinevere]

Says the anti-Royal.

[BoSoxGal]

Waste of money; feed the poor educate the ignorant house the homeless.

[Gob]

We cannot save all of America!

[Lord Jim]

educate the ignorant

I've attempted to do that repeatedly with rube, but to no avail...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Waste of money; feed the poor educate the ignorant house the homeless.

We encourage them to go to Australia

[Burning Petard]

What is the big deal? People fall over from standing immobile too long at any formal military parade. At least those big fur hats would provide some potential padding to the face.

snailgate

[MajGenl.Meade]

Especially if they are made from paddington bears

[Bicycle Bill]

Waste of money; feed the poor educate the ignorant house the homeless.

We encourage them to go to Australia

Don't you mean, "Made them an offer they couldn't refuse"?

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

That was the good old days. We tried "Emigrate to Oz for Seven Pounds" for a time but the Ozians got all gnarly about that when non-whites began to show up. These days it's all subliminal messages about how warm it is down there, how the sheilas really like the poms and there's lots of lovely South Africans with whom to talk. It's called the "Depopulate Wales" program. It's why we named the best place New and South - bloody taffy magnet that is.

[Gob]

ROTFLMFFAO!! Good one Meade.

[Gob]

[dales]

Looks to me like a work of contemporary art.