experts. To return to the photo of the Form up, it has been taken either from the landing outside 3 Troop LG or from the next Landing which was then the Band Room Landing. The roof lower right is the MT Garage; above the MT Garage at the right is 1 Troop LG Forage Barn. The iron staircase directly to the right leads up to 4 Troop LG and 1 Troop LG; at the top is the cookhouse. Over to the left of the photo below the white faced clock is the Guardroom. The iron staircase on the left just past the Guardroom leads up to the NAAFI shop and The Life Guards Sqn stores.
Guards: 3rd Grenadier, 1st Irish and 1st Coldstream, with their Commanding Officers and Adjutants mounted in front of their respective Battalions. If I recall
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on the rehearsal, one of the Mounted Foot Guards officers went for a splitarse around Horse Guards Parade which caused a few sniggers among the
Blast from the Past 2
Looking West Down the yard is The Blues end and directly facing you is the Riding School. To the right of that but out of sight is the Commanding Officer’s and Adjutant’s Offices and the Orderly Room. The right side of the Barracks led out to Hyde Park, the left via the Guardroom took you out to Knightsbridge.
by Laurie Young and George Lawn, The Band of The Life Guards
eorge Lawn reports this is likely the Armistice Day, or Remembrance Sunday parade of 1951 at Combermere Barracks, and no later than late ‘52. The Band are wearing Tprs tunics, and have adopted the white plume instead of the red plume that had been worn uniformly before Easter 1951. The Band are marching out of the Barrack Gate, and the Offrs Mess can be seen in the background beyond the cricket pitch. At the time the Band were resident in Victoria Barracks as there was no room in Combermere. Looking up the road on the right you can see the Squadron Living blocks. To the centre between the chestnut trees can be seen the Officers’ Mess. To the left can be seen the corner of the Recruits and Equitation Block; beneath this block are the Stables. The Riding School is way out of sight to the left between the trees. To the bottom left of the picture, the building with the flagpole is the Colonel’s, 2IC’s, Adjutant’s, and Orderly Room offices. Out of sight to the right is the domain
of Corporal of Horse Jock Lippe, RHG, namely the Guardroom. This was
how it looked when in ‘54. The Band is approaching the Main Gate.
In the Picture in 1946 - Cinderella
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by David Cobb, formerly The Life Guards
s Christmas 1946 approached, The Life Guards had spent almost six months since their arrival in Egypt living in tented camps. First, a month at Qassassin, where the Moonlight Charge of 1882 seemed long ago but might be recalled with pride. But their immediate task was to take over five squadrons of Daimler armoured cars, scout cars and other service vehicles and restore them to a condition fit for internal security
duties. Then they moved into camp at El Amariya, half an hour to the west of Alexandria, on the road to El Alamein. By November hostility from nationalists had reached a pitch where the city was declared out of bounds to troops. A certain boredom had set in. In November, in this atmosphere, the Welfare Officer, Lt Bentley, was charged with ensuring Christmas was a festive
and morale-boosting occasion for all. The cookhouse, used to serving a ‘tiffin’ meal at midday, made a gallant attempt to provide a traditional Christmas dinner, served up (though none too conspicuously) by officers and NCOs. Lt Bentley made himself responsible for activities in the post-lunch period: a football match, and then what he styled, rather preposterously, an Olde Englishe Countrie Fayre. Soldiers trudging back
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