A few pictures from yesterday
A Royal Salute to Her Majesty will launched the flotilla on its extraordinary route down the Thames, when - courtesy of Garrison Sergeant Major (Warrant Officer Class 1) Bill Mott - the most powerful voice in the British Army shouts out the words of command from Battersea Park River Bank. Bill, a familiar sight at ceremonial events in London, is the most senior Warrant Officer in the British Army, responsible for ensuring immaculate turn out and top military standards in London’s formal parades. It will be Bill’s task to call the four hundred strong ‘Manpower Squadron’ rowing vessels to order as Her Majesty embarks onto the Royal Barge ‘Spirit of Chartwell’. Barking out the Words of Command devised specially for this unique occasion, Bill’s powerful voice will call all crews to cease rowing, and raise their oars in a Royal Salute to Her Majesty. Bill will then order Three Cheers to Her Majesty before ordering the Manpower Squadron to row on. Commenting on this unique honour, Bill said: “I’m thrilled to be asked to take on this huge responsibility. While used to shouting out commands on parades, this will be a new experience for me to order a Rowing Contingent to give a Royal Salute!” Bill is the senior Warrant Officer of the British Army, responsible for some of the most spectacular State ceremonial over the last decade, including the Royal Wedding last year and the recent Muster at Windsor. WO1 MOTT: BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS Responsible for State Ceremonial military standards during all such events in London, WO1 Mott ensures that all military personnel are correctly positioned and understand their part in Ceremonial events. Garrison Sergeant Major William Mott OBE, is the senior Warrant Officer of the British Army, and is responsible for some of the most spectacular State ceremonial over the last decade. He was presented with an historic Warrant Officer’s Badge of rank just in time for the Royal Wedding. The badge revives the original one made
Three Cheers for Her Majesty the Queen as the army’s loudest voice calls Royal Salute.
The Royal Navy was out in force on Sunday 3rd June with the Senior Service pulling out all the stops to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the River Pageant. The Queen and several members of the Royal Family took part in a flotilla of 1,000 boats sailing along the River Thames from Battersea Bridge to Tower Bridge. Accompanying the Royal Barge containing Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will be the Royal Barge Honour Guard (RBHG) made up of two P2000 patrol boats, two Picket Boats, two Rigid Inflatable Boats from HMS Diamond, and four Off-shore Raiding Craft from 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. Here you can see some of the ships participating passing under tower bridgeunder tower bridge.
The Royal Navy was out in force on Sunday 3rd June with the Senior Service pulling out all the stops to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the River Pageant. The Queen and several members of the Royal Family took part in a flotilla of 1,000 boats sailing along the River Thames from Battersea Bridge to Tower Bridge Accompanying the Royal Barge containing Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh will be the Royal Barge Honour Guard (RBHG) made up of two P2000 patrol boats, two Picket Boats, two Rigid Inflatable Boats from HMS Diamond, and four Off-shore Raiding Craft from 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. Here you can see the Royal Barge turning preparing to come alongside HMS President
Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh were onboard the Royal Barge, the Spirit of Chartwell with several other members of the Royal Family to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the River Pageant on the Thames River. The Royal Barge was accompanied by the Royal Barge Honour Guard made up of two P2000 patrol boats, two picket boats, two rigid inflatable boats from HMS Diamond, and four Off-shore Raiding Craft from 539 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. The Massed Bands of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines piped the boats down the river as they sailed behind the Royal Barge before Her Majesty The Queen was escorted by the First Sea Lord, Sir Mark Stanhope into HMS President, where the Royal Party then watched as the remaining boats sailed past. Portsmouth-based Minehunter HMS Hurworth was the Royal Navy’s contribution to the Pageant while the Royal Naval Reserves formed a Guard of Honour and Colour party at HMS President to receive the Queen. This was the first time the Colour had been presented in the presence of the Queen since it was presented the year following her Golden Jubilee.
Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh were onboard the Royal Barge, the Spirit of Chartwell with several other members of the Royal Family to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee at the River Pageant on the Thames River.
HMS Ranger Ship's Company and Officer Cadets line up onboard as they await the Royal Barge by the London Eye.
Picture shows the guns of The Honourable Artillery Company firing. The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the City of London’s Territorial Army regiment and the oldest regiment in the British Army, firing a 41 round Gun Salute from Gun Wharf at HM Palace and Fortress, The Tower of London on Sunday 3rd June at 15.40 hours on the occasion of HM Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant.
Picture shows The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC), the City of London’s Territorial Army regiment and the oldest regiment in the British Army, firing a 41 round Gun Salute from Gun Wharf at HM Palace and Fortress, The Tower of London on Sunday 3rd June at 15.40 hours on the occasion of HM Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant. 03/06/2012. Credit should read: L/Cpl Mark Larner RY / MOD The soldiers will be drawn from Two Squadron HAC; the Battery Commander, will be Major Martin King HAC and the Battery Captain, Captain Richard Waddell HAC. The Inspecting Officer will be The Master Gunner Tower of London, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Murphy TD HAC. The HAC will leave their barracks at Armoury House and drive through the City of London to the Tower of London; the Guns are the regiment’s Colours and so are afforded the appropriate respect throughout the route. When the Guns arrive at the Tower, they are ‘brought into action’ on Gun Wharf adjacent to the River Thames; at approximarely 15.40 hours 41 rounds will be fired at 10 second intervals.
Better coverage than the BBC.
When I reached the front room the extended family were already watching Al Beeb so I couldn’t switch over to Sky.
Nice to see the new SCC “rowing” not “pulling” boat. And it was nice to see a Tamar too.
Shame a frigate couldn’t be found or a few more minor vessels. They could have done something to dress up that barge with the belfry. As lovely as the Spirit of Chartwell looked perhaps the money could have been spent on covering the costs of getting some more of the notable small vessels to capital.
All in all it was something different. If lacking a bit in spectacle.
As I mentioned on another thread last night, according to the BBC HMS Belfast weighs 91,000 tons!
Hmm…whatver you say guys.
I suppose someone has to start this off, so, here goes;
God Save The Queen.
I’m doing a blog piece on this later, but the RIBs were manned by the RN,RAN,RCN and RNZN to symbolise HMTQ being escorted by all four of her Royal Navies.
A bloody good day, and a very good presence from the RN.
It’ll be hard to resist the urge to scream loudly if I hear one more person saying ‘should have been a frigate’ though!
Should have been a frigate.
Watched it live on TV here in Canada – best bit, at the end the London Symphony Orchestra playing “Portsmouth” and everyone jigging, tapping feet, and in Prince Charles case, tapping is sword in time to the music
It’s on here too
Satellite TV. Isn’t it grand.
lol frigate? well, if you want to get ridd of all those pesky bridges…
It rained on her parade, but still a good show C:
@ Mike
Not in the pageant silly, but so……..
http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg30/scaled.php?server=30&filename=rum4.jpg&res=landing
“…HMTQ being escorted by all four of her Royal Navies…”
That’s an extraordinarily gratifying phrase to read. I read elsewhere this weekend that she’s actually the proper Queen of 16 Commonwealth countries, so I hope there were Barbadians, Jamaicans, and Papua New Guineans (etc – don’t want to leave anyone out) also in the flotilla doing their bit.
Did the RAN escort have a barbie going, with shrimps? RANZ no doubt would have been delighted with the long white cloud dumping rain down, and the Canucks simultaneously translating things into French and getting confused between the Army, the colonial Andrew, and the colonial Kevins. All good fun.
James
The four navies represented were the only ones to have defence representation in the UK. The remainder are not actually ‘Royal’ navies, in that their maritime organisations do not carry the ‘Royal’ title.
I finally got my article up and running at http://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/diamond-day-for-royal-navy.html
Well I remember being on the Isle of Wight ferry passing through the Silver Jubilee fleet review. Row boats on the Thames are a poor substitute for a proper fleet review, but then you have to have a fleet to review. Thanks to Brown & Cameron, row boats is all we have got left.
God save the Queen.
Sadly, her recent PMs have not been up to the task.
@ Jim30,
no matter about there only being four Royal **** Navies. It does the Andrews good once in a while to have a day of maritime floaty fun without the Army or the Kevins getting in the way, even if the weather was crap.
WTF with the cancelled flypasts? I can appreciate the old Fairey string bags may have been a bit dicey, but surely several Sea Kings and Merlins could have got airborne? Particularly with Phil the Greek, Charles the Worrier and both grandsons all being either naval or helo pilots. Bit of a disappointment, We could have had a Merlin dipping off Tower Bridge and pulling up an old boot, and a Junglie full of Royals giving the full moon out of the side door. I honestly think that the service staffs these days are lacking in imagination.
” I honestly think that the service staffs these days are lacking in imagination”
They must be distracted by something. Maybe there’s a war on somewhere?
x
Ah yes, forgot we could have one tied up alongside…but there would be no room for the pagent.
ThinPinstripedLine did a good post on the why’s about the RN’s pressence
http://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/diamond-day-for-royal-navy.html
Frigates? Ha! We haven’t got any spare. They’re all working, deployed, or in maintenance. Our inability to support events such as these is an indicator of the strain we’re under.
Didn’t see any RAF presence there either. Red Arrows catching up on their sleep quotas?
I was amazed by the RAF non-presence too.
I bet the RAF Reg must have had one of their mega-recruiting stands somewhere on the day. You know the two-storey one with the climbing wall that is always a staple of Navy Days.
well it was a bank holiday, they couldn’t afford the overtime for us anymore.
Save best till last they always steel the show
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/the_queens_diamond_jubilee/9312184/The-Queens-Diamond-Jubilee-carriage-procession-to-Buckingham-Palace.html?frame=2239844
Who was it that did the E.R formation with the wing tilt at the end?
Too many aircraft for the Red Arrows and it as the best bit of formation flying I’ve ever seen!
http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/275f04b4.jpg
That’s would have been best…
No, the RAF pulled out all the stops for the forces own personal tribute to HM, the weather was a little naff to stop the RAF/RN show at the pagent and wasn’t that much better for the day after – the muster is what I’ll remember of this, her beaming smiles at the EIIR formation… besides that new medal.
@Simon – the EIIR at Windsor was 27 mixed T1/T2 Hawks from Valley and Leeming – apparently they will do it again next month at RIAT Fairford : http://www.airtattoo.com/airshow/aircraft/aircraft-in-the-spotlight/raf-eiir-flypast
@jim30 – BZ on your article. I think the BBC said Belfast was 90,000 tons – my jaw dropped, but I guessed they’d just misread 9000 tons and didn’t have the experience to realise the order-of-magnitude mistake. Far worse was noone knowing what the semaphore said – that was just a basic homework thing, it was in all the newspapers. Fearne Cotton was just toe-curling interviewing the old boys on Belfast.
I was there, more or less opposite Hurworth – got some nice pics after it had finished and we were allowed onto the private bits of Butler’s Wharf where you could get a much better view of M39. It really was miserable weather though – it was a damn good effort for an 86yo and a 91yo to make it through to the end even if they did have shelter. There were guys half their age visibly shivering around me.
The cadets with the Commonwealth flags were definitely one of the highlights, plus the sheer chaos of the manpower squadron. It was interesting watching the ORCs come in ahead of HM – I’m sure some of their contents were rather more ninja than your average RM….
Of course, the TD consensus is that we’re going to abolish all the tourist-friendly ceremonial stuff in favour of running 1/8th of a Bay class, no?
El Sid re Consensus on Ceremonial
Not at all. I would scrap the Red Arrows so we could have a a new ship. Think modern HMS Warrior come new Britannia. Something with lots of cannons for salutes and stuff. I bet the RA cost more than £10million a year to run. That C17 they use to haul all the Brylcreem about must cost a good few groats.
Wizard idea!