Queen Elizabeth II Presents New Standard to Royal Tank Regiment

The Queen presented the Royal Tank Regiment with a new standard in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle in Berkshire.

This comes just two days after her sixth great-grandchild was born into the world, weighing 8 pounds 7 ounces on St George’s Day.

The monarch, who is colonel-in-chief of the regiment, delivered a speech today and paid tribute to the efforts of the Royal Tank Regiment as she presented the unit with a new standard.

As colonel-in-chief of the regiment, the Queen hosted its soldiers and officers at Windsor Castle and praised their reputation for hard work and ingenuity that endures.

She highlighted the unbreakable connection that has existed between the Sovereign and the Royal Tank Regiment since her grandfather, King George V, visited trials of early tanks at Elveden in Suffolk in July 1916.

The Queen told the servicemen, who were joined by their partners, that much has changed since 1916, and technology has evolved, but the regiment’s reputation for hard work and ingenuity endures.

The bond within tank crews, within squadrons, and within the regiment remains undiminished.

The standard is the symbol of that bond between the men and women who serve in the regiment and of their allegiance to the Sovereign and to the nation.

A standard, or regimental flag, was originally used as a rallying point on the battlefield to help troops avoid becoming disorientated by the fog of war, and today it has great symbolic value.

It bears the place names of the regiment’s hard-won battle honours and serves to remind us of the sacrifices that have been made in the past on behalf of the nation, especially in an increasingly uncertain world.

The standard was consecrated by the British Army’s Chaplain General, Reverend Dr. David Coulter, before the Queen presented it to the regiment in Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Hall.

The Queen was presenting her fourth standard to the regiment, which was forwarded during the First World War and since the Second World War has deployed to almost every major conflict.

The monarch added that since the regiment’s birth, only the monarch has presented a new standard and so now, a century later, she takes great pleasure in presenting them with their new standard today.

She wishes them, together with their families, the strength and fortitude to succeed in all they do, as those who have gone before them have always done.

In 1960, the Queen presented the first standards to the regiment.

She recalled that King George V had seen the first tank demonstrated in 1916, and as the regiment’s first colonel-in-chief, he embodied the Royal Tank Corps into the regular army in 1923.

Since 1960, the 92-year-old has twice presented new standards to the regiment, in 1985 in Sennelager, Germany and in 2008 at Buckingham Palace.