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The Duchess of Cornwall to present medals to The Rifles

The Duchess of Cornwall

On Monday, 9 December The Duchess of Cornwall as Royal Colonel will issue Operational Service Medals to the 4th Battalion, The Rifles at the Ward Barracks, Bulford, Wiltshire. The 4th Battalion retuned from Afghanistan after a six month deployment.

In 2007, The Duchess became the Royal Colonel of 4th Battalion, The Rifles. Prior to 2007, they were known as 2nd Battalion, The Royal Green Jackets.

Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Bewick and the Regimental Sergeant Major, W.O.1 (R.S.M.) Hyde will greet the Royal Colonel upon her arrival. They will then attend a reception, where she will be introduced to members of the Battalion and their families. After the reception, they will head to the Parade Ground, where Camilla will give a speech and present the Operational Service Medals.

This past January Camilla visited the troops prior to their deployment to Afghanistan. As their Colonel, the 4th Battalion bestowed the honour of touring about in a Husky armoured vehicle and observed the Battalion training.

“We put her in a Husky armoured vehicle, which I think is the first time she’s been in one of those. We took her on a jaunt around the training area ending up at a demonstration of a compound clearance,” Lieutenant Colonel Tom Bewick, the unit’s commanding Officer mentioned on The Prince of Wales’ website.

The regiment has 5 regular and 2 Territorial Army divisions, each aligned for a particular infantry function. The 4th Battalion is known as a mechanized infantry. This means that the infantry is equipped with armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles for transport and combat.

The Duke of Edinburgh is the Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment whilst each battalion has its own Royal Colonel, which include The Duke of Kent, The Earl of Wessex, Princess Alexandra, The Countess of Wessex,
The Duke of Gloucester and The Duchess of Gloucester.

photo credit: 4 Cdn Div/4 Div CA – JTFC/FOIC via photopin cc