Canadian artillery soldiers serve as Queen’s Guard in London

December 21, 2021 - Tim Bryant, Western Sentinel

The duties of a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are varied, but one set of duties has a more ceremonial and international flavour.

On occasion, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II invites CAF units to the United Kingdom to assume the role of the Queen’s Guard, guarding the royal residences at Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.

From Oct. 4 to 22, members from the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery (RCA) represented Canada as the Queen’s Guard. The duties also served to honour and commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the formation of the RCA in 1871, which ultimately led the way to Canada’s professional Army.

All told, approximately 130 personnel from 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery (1 RCHA), 2 RCHA, 5^e Régiment d’artillerie légère du Canada, 4^th Artillery Regiment (General Support) and the Royal Canadian Artillery School, along with members of the Royal Canadian Artillery Band, were in London guarding the Queen.

Major Michael Crosier, Captain of the Guards and Officer Commanding for the RCA UK Public Duties contingent, explained the soldiers selected for the duties were chosen for their conduct, professionalism and their image as a soldier.

Among the soldiers to make the trip across the pond was Master Bombardier Brett Morgan.

“It was a really overwhelming experience,” he said, explaining hours upon hours of training and practice were necessary before he and his peers were ready for their first shift on duty. “It was very surreal being inside the Guard Room inside Windsor Castle and just being there finally after months of training.”

The soldiers were each on duty at only one location during their entire tour. Being at Windsor Castle meant an opportunity to meet the Queen. Although, for MBdr Morgan it was somewhat old hat, as he had previously met her in Winnipeg at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

“Being able to see her again was a very unique to me experience,” he said.

Maj Crosier was also at Windsor Castle when the Queen met the troops, which he considered an “incredible” experience.

“She has a gift just to be able to carry a conversation and engage everybody she spoke to effortlessly,” he said. “She was just talking to you like a normal conversation you’d be having with anybody.”

He added the Queen also has a good eye.

“She said she recognized me from the picture on the front of the Times,” Maj Crosier said. “Then she said she was really happy the public in London welcomed us so much and had such an interest in the Canadians being there on the duties.”

Having the opportunity to serve on the Queen’s Guard held a lot of significance for MBdr Morgan.

“For me personally, it really drove home the fact we are part of the Commonwealth,” he said, adding that’s something many people often take for granted. However, it returns to front of mind when performing ceremonial duties for the Queen directly.

“It drives home that heritage of where we came from.”

MBdr Morgan’s duties at Windsor Castle including serving as the Corporal of the Guard, which involved posting the guards themselves at their posts every two hours.

He explained he and another Corporal of the Guard would march out from the Guard Room and call on the relief guards. They would then inspect the guards and march them to their posts and read them their orders. Following that task, they would have down time until the next shift in two hours.

Over at the Tower of London, MBdr Eric Bouchard was in awe of the chance to perform his duties at such an important historical landmark, calling the experience “unreal” and “surreal.”

“It’s like nothing else,” he said. “From the moment you drive through the gates and you just take it in – ‘Wow; these structures have been here longer than our country.’”

He added it was difficult to put into words the significance of guarding the Queen, and particularly the Crown Jewels.

“It was kind of a dream in a sense,” he said. “I didn’t join the military thinking this would be the type of opportunity I would be able to do. When the opportunity came up, it was so unique and so out of left field.”

MBdr Bouchard recounted two other instances of recognizing the history he was experiencing first-hand.

The first was when he and his peers were doing their drills at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, on one of the oldest parade squares in Europe.

“It was just so surreal, when we took a moment to think about how after so many conflicts people formed up and collected their dead and mourned the loss of their cohorts,” he said. “It was just so humbling.”

The second was while he was on duty at the Tower of London, where during the playing of The Last Post he stood beside a wall that had been damaged in a German bombing run during the Second World War.

“It made the whole experience very real and relatable,” he said. “It was so inspiring. Despite having been bombed, soldiers did their jobs. They were professional. They carried on with their mission.”

While MBdr Morgan enjoyed his time on duty and would return to London “in a heartbeat” if given the chance, he said some of his peers did not want to go to London because of the drills involved – drills are skills not practised as much in a deployable unit, he explained. In response to that line of thinking, he had a strong rebuke.

“I would say, ‘Get out of your comfort zone and take an opportunity when you see it,’” he said.

He said going to London with the Public Duties contingent polished his previously lacking drill skills, and “I got to go to England and have this once-in-a-lifetime experience on top of that.”

MBdr Bouchard was equally insistent in encouraging his peers to take advantage of opportunities to do something they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do.

“I would tell them to absolutely volunteer, and if they don’t they’ll regret it for the rest of their careers,” he said. “This type of opportunity only comes up once in a career and if you squander it, it would be one heck of a waste to say no to it.”