The parade
On Saturday 21 May 2011 the 1st Battalion Scots Guards marched through Wantage to receive the Freedom of the town, which Wantage Town Council had granted in August 2010. About 100 officers and guardsmen took part, and in the Market Place the regiment’s Colonel, the Duke of Kent, received the Freedom scroll on its behalf. The guardsmen paraded in ceremonial scarlet tunics and bearskins, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Lincoln Jopp MC. The battalion had come back in the autumn of 2010 from a six-month tour in Helmand, Afghanistan. Crowds lined the route from Newbury Street to the Market Place, the Wantage Silver Band played the Lockinge March, written for the unveiling of the King Alfred statue in 1877, and Lord Wantage’s Victoria Cross was on show. An RAF Puma from Benson flew over as the parade left the square, and the afternoon ended with stalls and displays in Manor Road Memorial Park.
What the Freedom means
Granting a regiment the Freedom of a town is the highest honour a town can give a military unit. By tradition it allows the regiment to march through the streets ‘with drums beating, band playing, bayonets fixed, swords drawn and Colours flying’. It is a ceremonial right, usually exercised on special occasions, that marks a lasting bond between a town and a regiment.
Why the Scots Guards?
The link runs through Robert Loyd-Lindsay, later Lord Wantage, who gave the town King Alfred’s statue and the Victoria Cross Gallery. As a young officer in the Scots Fusilier Guards, as the regiment was then called, he won one of the first Victoria Crosses for his bravery at the battles of the Alma and Inkerman in 1854, during the Crimean War. The regiment counts him among its VC holders, and the town’s Freedom recognises that shared history.
The regiment
The Scots Guards trace their origins to 1642 and are one of the five regiments of Foot Guards in the British Army. They serve both on public duties in London and as an operational infantry battalion.