Reservists to save Queen's Guard after Army cuts

PART-TIME reservists will be able to carry out ceremonial duties at Buckingham Palace for the first time in 124 years, because of a critical shortage of soldiers in the Household Division.

- Marco Giannangeli

The move, revealed in the small print of the Ministry of Defence’s new Future Soldier policy plan, is part of the biggest transformation of the Army in two decades, in which its number will shrink from 82,000 to 73,000.

Scots, Welsh and Grenadier Guards regularly fail to recruit and retain enough soldiers and, over the past three years, have been forced to regularly borrow personnel from other regular units when on ceremonial duty.

Now the London Regiment, a reservist unit, is to be renamed the London Guards Regiment and become a part-time Guards unit. It means that reservists will be able to provide support for Foot Guard regiments in ceremonial duties at Buckingham Palace, Windsor, the Tower of London and St James’s Palace from 2024.