Princess Eugene: I think she’s saying, don’t forget to get a good one of my hat Don… LOL.

Captured in the procession along the Mall for the Trooping of the Colour.

Camera Nikon D700 with 70-200mm f/2.8 Lense.
ISO 400, 135mm, 1/250th sec at f/7.1,

More Pics of the Queen’s Trooping of the Colours Ceremony in London.

The Trooping of the Colour Ceremony
Celebrates the Queen’s Birthday.
Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and the British Army. 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 the second Saturday in June on Horse Guards Parade by St James’s Park, and coincides with the publication of the Sovereign’s Birthday Honours List. People receive knightoods, MBE’s etc….

The colourful ceremony, also known as The Queen’s Birthday Parade is broadcast live by the BBC.

The Queen rides down from Buckingham Palace in a Royal Procession with a Sovereign’s Escort of Household Cavalry {also known as “Mounted Troops” or “Horse Guards”}. Since 1987, The Queen has attended in a carriage rather than riding, which she did before that on 36 occasions, riding side-saddle and wearing the uniform of the regiment whose Colour was being trooped. The regiments take their turn for this honour in rotation as operational commitments permit.

Over 1400 officers and men are on parade, together with two hundred horses; over four hundred musicians from ten bands and corps of drums march and play as one. Some 113 words of command are given by the Officer in Command of the Parade. The parade route extends from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and back again.
She inspects her troops of the Household Division, including both Foot Guards and Horse Guards.

The King’s Troop are also in attendance. Each year, one of the Foot Guards regiments is selected to troop their colour through the ranks of guards. Then the entire assembly of Household Division conducts a March Past around the Parade past the Queen, who receives their salute from the Saluting Base. (The Mounted Troops perform a Walk March and a Trot Past, and the King’s Troops ride by with their guns, which are their colour.)

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 Scottish pipers. They number in total approximately 400 musicians, pipers, and drummers.

On return 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 onto the palace balcony for a Royal Air Force flypast.

More Pics of the Queen’s Trooping of the Colours Ceremony in London.