The Commanding Officer with the top six of Senior Ranks Show Jumping.
Guardroom were not wasted. The Handy Hunter saw Captain ZN Catsaras and CoH Holden to victory. The junior ranks Show jumping was won by Tpr Prest. This year saw an unusual amount of visitors at Bodney Camp. We were fortunate to have Colonel The Life Guards to visit us. He presented Lieutenant Trietline with the winning prize for Troop tests. The Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Roger Wheeler, stayed overnight and watched a full days training including The Blues and Royals Squadron Handy Hunter won by LCoH Anderton and Tpr Martin. The
Tpr Carmichael on Umpteen.
GOC London District, Major General Evelyn Webb – Carter, visited during Ex Try Out. The exercise was again essential training for both us and the civilian organisations which deal with the security implications of ceremonial occasions. Commander Household Cavalry visited us with an avuncular eye, to see that Regimental Training was conducted within the spirit of the Household Cavalry. The Open Day, held on the final Sunday, was the biggest ever and provided Major Lodge with the prospect of closing the gates at one point. The sun shone as an estimated 5,000 visitors, friends and fam-
ily came from miles around. Captain CT Haywood on Vengeful won the 6 bar competition. Major TPR Daniel, for his swan song in the Army, won the Mounted Skill at Arms. Having presented the Regiment with a prize (as a leaving present) imagine his surprise when it was presented back to him by Mrs Daniel. As September arrived so did the Autumn and the time to return to London. This year’s Regimental Training was a well deserved and invaluable rest from ceremony by both soldiers and horses alike, as the ceremonial season gets longer and busier for the Regiment every year.
Regimental Winter Camp 14 February to 7 March at Crowborough Training Camp, West Sussex. he Household Cavary Mounted Regiment had gone on Winter Camp in 1995 when Troops filtered through David Broom’s yard near Chepstow. Prior to this, camps had been delegated to Troop Leaders to take their men and horses home or to arrange another location. It was decided that Winter Camps should be re-established for 1998/9, being organised for the Regiment to pass through, two troops at a time. The place chosen was Crowborough Training Camp, which lies to the south of the Ashdown Forest, near Tunbridge Wells in East Sussex. Built as a wartime transit camp with capacity for a whole battalion, it was very similar in layout to other camps known by Household Cavalrymen such as Sennybridge, Westdown and Bodney. After initial recces it was decided to arrange a three
T
week camp at Crowborough with a troop of The Life Guards and of The Blues and Royals going down together for a week each. As with summer Camp, the usual arrangements of woodhouse stabling were made and our arrival on St. Valentine’s Day whilst not the most romantic way to celebrate that playful Saint, proved to be the start of a much needed rural break. Ideally a winter camp would take place before Christmas so as not to interfere with drafts to Windsor, formation of the Musical Ride, leave, and grass plots (horse leave); however, with a December escort this was impossible. It also meant that the renowned Sussex clay, always such a bane on the life of hunting folk in the area, had absorbed several months of autumnal and winter rain!
Capt Phelps and Courier reporter Miss Emma Shankland.
Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment
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