There are always staff on the PR floor (upstairs) but on my floor it was deserted. I also didn’t have much to do, since the only reason I was there was to attend a client meeting with the Move Committee of BQW (which meets Saturday mornings) at their offices near Trafalgar Square. So I arrived about 10, fired off a few e-mails (to prove I was actually in the offices) and waited around until it was time to go to the meeting.
To use up time I walked across to Trafalgar Square (about a mile). The route takes me along Lower Regent Street and down the Duke of York Steps. As I was going down the Steps I saw the Life Guards going along The Mall.
The Life Guards are part of the Household Cavalry, and have ceremonial duties in London guarding Buckingham Palace and other places (including, I think, the Bank of England). They also have a mechanised division which goes to war. It’s good to see horses in the middle of London.
Also part of the Household Cavalry are the Blues and Royals. I took this photograph last year when I was idling time away in Whitehall (I had gone to a seminar about e-marketing at the Institute of Civil Engineers which is on the corner of Parliament Square). I think they are mostly based at Windsor.
My view of “the cavalry” I guess was formed by this illustration from a book about the Boer War. I don’t suppose war was really this chivalrous. Huge numbers of horses were used in the First World War, and are commemorated by the Animals In War Memorial at Brook Gate on the edge of Hyde Park.
The book on the Boer War has been in our family for ages (well, obviously not more than a hundred years). It used to belong to my brother. It’s mine now.
More on the Life Guards: http://www.army.mod.uk/ceremonialandheritage/household/queens_life_guard.htm
More on the Blues and Royals: http://www.army.mod.uk/armcorps/royblues/
More on the Animals In War Memorial: http://www.indielondon.co.uk/events/att_animals_warmemorial.html
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