Full Description
The story of the British Army's Household Division from 1969 to 2023. It is the biography of a family of three generations of soldiers who have served Crown and Country during a period of significant social and geostrategic change.
The story of the British Army's Household Division from 1969 to 2023 is one of three generations of soldiers who have served Crown and Country during a period of significant social and geostrategic change. It is the story of a family of seven regiments that symbolise the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Septem juncta in uno: The Life Guards, The Blues and Royals, Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards. The Guards established an ascendancy in the Peninsular War and at the Battle of Waterloo, and have never truly faltered since. They have managed this by changing when change was needed.
Over the last 50 years, the Household Division has been at the centre of almost every major operation conducted by the British Army: Northern Ireland, the Falklands, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the Household Division is a national institution, admired by the public through its mastery of ceremonial and pageantry, and the magnificent hour that is Trooping the Colour.
The professionalism and self-discipline of the individual Guardsmen and Troopers are what ensures both their exemplary performance on operations and their high standards of state ceremonial and public duties. Those Must Be The Guards illustrates both roles through the experiences of those who have served in the Household Division over the past half-century.
Contents
Foreword by HRH The Princess Royal
Preface by the Major General Commanding The Household Division
List of Illustrations and Maps
Prologue
1. Setting the Scene: The Guards, 1969-2023
2. Commendable Restraint: The Troubles, 1969-2007
3. National Renewal: The Falklands Campaign, April-June 1982
4. The Household Division in Germany: The British Army's Latter Day 'Raj', 1969-2008
5. Disengaging from Britain's Far-flung Battle Line
6. Pomp and Circumstance: Ceremony and Drill
7. Cold War, Hot War and Options for Change, 1990-92
8. The Guards Depot: Septem juncta in uno
9. The Household Division in the Balkans, 1993-2007
10. Iraq and Afghanistan, 2003-21: A Strategic and Political Failure?
11. Afghanistan: Operation Herrick, 2006-14
Epilogue: Op Shader in Iraq and the Beat of the Drum
Acknowledgements
Index
