Anglo-Danish Society 90th Anniversary Dinner at the Tower of London and the Ceremony of the Keys, Wednesday 18th June 2014 'An evening steeped in ...

Anglo-Danish Society 90th Anniversary Dinner at the Tower of
 London and the Ceremony of the Keys, Wednesday 18th June 2014

                      ‘An evening steeped in history’

On a warm and sunny June evening 35 members of the Anglo-Danish Society
and the Danish Guards Association in Great Britain arrived at the West Gate of
the Tower of London. We were met by a young officer of the Princess of
Wales’s Royal Regiment (PWRR) and directed towards their Headquarters,
which forms part of the HQ building of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers - the
RRF was raised at the Tower in 1685. Passing through the three massive gate
bastions and walking along the cobbles of Water Lane towards the Outer and
Inner Wards that surround the central White Tower, one cannot help but be
impressed by a deep sense of history, especially when the place is empty and
all the sightseers have left. Work on the White Tower was begun back in 1078
on the orders of William the Conqueror – well before Bishop Absalon was
granted the land to build Copenhagen. The Tower itself was just part of an
extensive system of Norman Castles built throughout Britain by King William
‘to stamp his authority’ over his Anglo-Saxon subjects. Over several centuries
the Tower has been extended and improved as an impressive fortification. It
still contains the Queen’s House, a Royal residence for use by the Queen if ever
she so chooses. History was indeed to be a great part of the evening.

The occasion was part of this year’s celebration of the 90th Anniversary of the
Anglo-Danish Society. Members of the Danish Guards Association had been
invited along since the PWRR has strong links to Denmark and a bond of
friendship with the Royal Danish Life Guards regiment.

We were met by our charming host, Colonel Wayne Harber K, OBE, the PWRR
Regimental Secretary, together with our Chairman Mr Christian Williams and
his wife Riitta. We then congregated in the Fusilier Museum, where we were
served a welcome drink and met the other guests. The museum itself was
fascinating - we had the opportunity to inspect many interesting artefacts
while we waited, including busts of both Hitler and Mussolini ‘liberated’ at the

end of WW2 and the full dress uniform of King George V as Colonel-in-Chief of
the RRF.

We had been ‘advised’ in advance that there would be ‘some very
distinguished persons present’ and one would expect that this would naturally
include prominent attendees such as Mrs Inge Mitchell R, former Secretary of
the Society, Mr Palle Pedersen R, of the Danish KFUK, Mr Alexander Malmeus,
Chairman of the Anglo-Swedish Society and his wife, Jacqueline, and of course
the three Danish law graduate guests, Miss Birgitte Barfoed, Miss Louise
Christensen and Miss Nina Kristensen. But our Secretary was really referring to
the three very distinguished members of the PWRR who were present; our
host Colonel Harber OBE, resplendent in his Knight Commander of the
Dannebrog insignia, and Colonel James Coote DSO, OBE - but the most
distinguished of all, Lance-Sergeant Johnson Beharry VC, one of just 9 living
holders of the Victoria Cross, and the only serving VC holder in the British Army
today (the Australians have three VCs serving). Colonel Coote, then a Major,
was commanding officer at Al-Amarah in Iraq in May and June 2004, when on
two occasions driver Private Beharry acted with the greatest heroism. In the
first action he selflessly and repeatedly exposed himself to direct enemy fire to
save the lives of several of his fellow soldiers, and in the second action, despite
himself being severely wounded in the head, he saved his fellow soldiers again
but later required brain surgery. Major Coote had the task of writing the
recommendation for Johnson Beharry’s Victoria Cross. I was particularly
delighted to meet Colonel Coote again, as several years previously he had
given a very impressive talk on the Al-Amarah battles to the Danish Guards
Association.

We were ushered into the dining hall of the officers’ mess, where a long table
had been laid and decorated with regimental silverware and Danish flags.
There was an impressive silver trophy centrepiece, flanked at one end by a
beautiful silver Danish guardsman figure about 25 cm tall (a friendship gift
from the Royal Danish Life Guards regiment ) and at the other by a similar-
sized silver figure of a WW1 British Tommy.

Our host, Colonel Harber, gave a welcome speech where he explained his
regiment’s Danish connections and why PWRR had moved its HQ to the Tower.
The PWRR is a recently formed amalgamation of the twelve earlier ‘Home

Counties’ regiments of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Middlesex. Of
these, the Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment, raised at Putney in 1661 as the 2nd
Regiment of Foot, is the senior English infantry Regiment of the Line. But it is
the Royal East Kent Regiment, The Buffs, which has the Danish connection.
The Buffs trace their history back to 1572, when 3000 men from the Trained
Bands of London (another London connection) paraded before Queen
Elizabeth I at Greenwich. Some volunteered for service in Holland, and on
their return to England in 1665, became part of the British Army as the 3rd
Regiment of Foot. This regiment became Prince George of Denmark’s
Regiment in 1689 when he, as husband of Princess Anne, the future Queen of
England, became their Colonel-in-Chief. Prince George retained his colonelcy
until his death in 1708. Almost 200 years then passed before, in 1906, King
Edward VII appointed his brother-in-law, King Frederik VIII of Denmark as
Colonel-in-Chief of the Buffs. King Frederik must have made an excellent
impression, for the honour was then offered to his son King Christian X, who
followed as Colonel-in-Chief after his father in 1914. King Frederik IX again
followed his father as Colonel-in-Chief first of the Buffs in 1947 and then of the
amalgamated Queen’s Own Buffs in 1961. After further amalgamation in 1966
to form the Queen’s Regiment, Queen Margrethe followed her father in 1972
in the role of Allied Colonel-in-Chief and then, when the Princess of Wales
relinquished her colonelcy in 1996, Queen Margrethe became sole Colonel-in-
Chief of the PWRR. Thus there has been a close association between the
Danish royal house and the Buffs and PWRR for over 125 years. But that is not
all - when a Danish recruitment office was established in October 1940 in
London, many Danes who joined the Allies (like Anders Lassen, who also was
awarded the Victoria Cross) were commissioned into the Buffs. After the war,
in September 1945, some 2500 Danes signed up to join the British Army on a
three year contract to replace British soldiers returning home after the war.
Many were posted to the Buffs. They served in India, Palestine, Suez, Greece,
Italy, Libya, Sudan, Kenya and the Gold Coast, as well as in Bermuda and other
places abroad. As recently as 2003 there was still an active Danish section of
the Buffs Regimental Association - former Buffs servicemen living in Denmark.

The PWRR traces its antecedents back to 1572 and the Holland regiment,
which formally became part of the British Army in 1665. The Royal Danish Life
Guards, though formed in 1658, later incorporated the King’s Drabant Guard,

originally formed by King Frederik II in 1571 and part of the Danish Army since
1666. The two ‘brother regiments’ thus have similarly long histories and the
Danish Guards Association is privileged, honoured and proud to be invited
each year to march with the PWRR’s contingent on Remembrance Sunday at
the Cenotaph. Perhaps the only other non-Commonwealth old soldiers’
organisation officially invited to be represented and to march at the Cenotaph
is the Marine Corps Association of the USA.

Colonel Harber explained that both the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the
PWRR have antecedents in the Trained Bands of London and in the Middlesex
Volunteer Regiments, so it is only right that they now share their HQ at the
Tower. But he added that the PWRR actually only has three rooms of office
space within the building. So, perhaps the famous exhortation of the Adjutant,
Lieutenant Cotter, to the 2nd Buffs on parade in Malta in 1855, “Steady the
Buffs, the Fusiliers are watching you!”, is still very much appropriate today.

Colonel Harber’s speech was answered by Mr Christian Williams for the Anglo-
Danish Society. Christian wanted to be brief and thanked the Colonel for a
very fine dinner arrangement and hoped, since the Society’s Patron and the
PWRR’s Colonel-in-Chief are both HM Queen Margrethe, that there might be
more in the future. He pointed out that the prime function of the Society
today is to provide scholarships to support selected Danish graduates wishing
to further their studies in UK, such as the three Danish law graduates present,
and vice versa for British graduates wishing to study in Denmark.

Towards the end of a most delicious meal, a Yeoman Warder of the Tower
arrived to explain the evening’s concluding event, ‘the Ceremony of The Keys’.
Yeoman Warder Simon Dodd, a former Warrant Officer of the Grenadier
Guards, explained that this same important ceremony has been carried out
every night without fail, come rain or shine, since 1340 when King Edward III
held court at the Tower - that was before the Black Death plague killed about a
third of Europe’s population and the Hundred Years War with France killed
more again. The ceremony is both symbolic and remains important today to
ensure that the English crown jewels are properly guarded. Yeoman Warder
Dodd explained what would take place and then escorted us to Water Lane,
below the Queen’s House and next to the Bloody Tower.

At precisely seven minutes to ten, the Chief Warder emerges from the Byward
Tower with a lit lantern and The Keys. Then, accompanied by the Escort to The
Keys of the duty Guards regiment, he locks each of three main gates to the
Tower. The Escort then marches off along Water Lane until challenged by a
sentry at the Bloody Tower. “Halt – Who comes there” is the challenge. The
Chief Warder replies “The Keys”, to which the sentry demands “Whose keys”.
The Chief Warder replies “Queen Elizabeth’s Keys” and the sentry answers
“Pass Queen Elizabeth’s Keys and All’s Well”. The Escort marches on wheeling
left through the Bloody Tower passageway before coming to a halt at the foot
of the Broadwalk Steps. There the Officer of the Guard has paraded another
detachment of Guards at the top of the stairs. He gives the order to ‘Present
Arms’. The Chief Warder then takes two steps forward and, raising his bonnet
high above his head, calls “God preserve Queen Elizabeth”, to which the Guard
responds “Amen” exactly as the clock strikes ten and a guardsman sounds the
Last Post. The chief Warder takes The Keys to the Queen’s House and the
Guard is dismissed.

A colourful and fitting ceremonial end to a marvellous evening - and many
thanks to our hosts, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment!

Peter Laub

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