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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Trooping the Colour
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Annual ceremony on *Horse Guards Parade, held on the *Queen's Birthday. Parading the colour (the regimental standard or flag) before the troops was a necessary military exercise in earlier centuries, so that soldiers could recognize their rallying point on the field of battle. The ceremony was first used in 1748 to mark the monarch's official birthday, and it has been an annual event since the early 19C.
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All seven regiments of the *Household Division take part, but the colour being trooped invariably belongs to a battalion of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards. The Queen comes from Buckingham Palace along the Mall to Horse Guards (each year from 1969 to 1986 she rode the same black mare, Burmese). She takes the salute at a colourful and famously precise military parade, before returning to the palace where she and her family watch from the balcony a fly-past by the RAF.
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