His Majesty The King’s Visit

His Majesty The King’s Visit

‘Adjutant, we have got a visit coming up. The King, our Captain General, will be visiting the Royal Marines and CGRM has asked CTCRM to host the visit. This will be the first time a reigning monarch has visited CTCRM since 1998, and 85 years since a King’s Badge was presented by a reigning monarch. I want to go big; You’ll be leading with it… happy?’

Three weeks into the job as Adjutant at CTCRM and that was the (gen) gist of the conversation I had with Col I C Catton RM, the Commandant. I felt the weight of the event immediately, but I was also slightly baffled as to how an event like this would be run to achieve the maximum success. That initial conversation happened in April, and the adage of no plan survives contact couldn’t be truer. I submitted outline proposals but fairly early on in the planning stage, CTCRM was overtaken by events and His Majesty postponed the visit, seeking to reschedule in 2025. The plans were shelved, and they slowly gathered dust over the summer as I focused on important things, such as knot-tying and extra drill.

The Palace continued to stay in touch, and we submitted dates of preference, all were in spring and summer of 2025. We couldn’t bear the thought of this event being scuppered due to rain, so late autumn and winter were completely off the table… completely! You can imagine my surprise when I was informed in late September that His Majesty had decided upon a date and would visit on 15 November 2024. Back to the Commandant’s Office I shuffled!

‘15 November Adjutant, I am assuming it won’t be an issue?’ Asked the Commandant, not really asking me. ‘Yes Sir, no issue whatsoever.’ I said with unfound and undeserved confidence.

The possibility had now turned into an immediate reality, of which I didn’t feel like I had much time (albeit I had seven weeks or so). Planning began in earnest, with our old friend the Combat Estimate getting rolled out to help me try and understand the details surrounding an event of this size. Meetings, Working Groups, Walk-Arounds, Inspections, Recces and goodness knows what else began to take shape. At this point I was still a one-man-band, and most people on CTCRM didn’t really believe in my cause, especially as it had already been cancelled once. Warning Orders were sent out and this gained some traction, particularly as this event had been designated the Main Effort for the week (briefly overtaking Recruit Training) – which I took a surprisingly large amount of pride in and, much to my colleagues’ irritation, I wasn’t scared to let them know it.The Royal Household organised three visits to CTCRM: The Assistant Equerry and the Media Team; The Principal Equerry and the Protection Team; and the Royal Flight. All of which went surprisingly well and everyone who visited could see the history here and the opportunity for a memorable event. The police were the next to visit. We couldn’t touch down on the parade ground (which is not an HLS at CTCRM should anyone at CHF be reading this), so were required to land on the playing fields. This meant a dreaded road move and all the additional layers of planning that come with organising an armed escort, road closures and covert vehicles, which felt like a lot for 150m of public road, but I was assured this was routine. The police were excellent and couldn’t have made our lives easier. They provided the road closures and sourced additional armed officers for the escort to ensure we remained beyond the gold standard throughout the visit. My initial dread of the change of HLS, was replaced by genuine thanks that the police were now on the team and helping me to make it all happen……………………

To find out more about the CLR  and further RM activities across the globe, catch up regularly with all the news in the Globe & Laurel Magazine, the Journal of the Royal Marines.

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