Page 126 - QDG Volume 9 No. 5

124 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Austria did visit Aldershot
and inspected the regiment
on parade. In 1908, Franz
Josef celebrated his Diamond
Jubilee and awarded twen-
ty-three silver medals and
ninety-five bronze, which
were presented at Ambala.
To be fair on Franz Josef,
the assassination of Franz
Ferdinand tipped him over
the edge. Having taken all
his misfortune stoically, he
now wanted revenge. He
naïvely asked the German
government whether they
would support him if he gave the Serbs
a bloody nose. The Germans, who were
looking at dominance in Europe, read
the situation much more accurately
than Franz Josef and realised that if the
Austrians invaded Serbia, the French,
Belgians and Russians would all turn
against Austria, providing Germany with
an opportunity to start a war in Europe.
The rest is history.
In May 1915, whilst the KDG were in
the Festubert area, it was decided that
Franz Josef could no longer remain as
Colonel in Chief and at the same time the
Habsburg Eagle should be replaced with
the Star and Garter. The Colonel of the
Regiment wrote to Franz Josef and told
him with regret that the regiment needed
to ask him to stand down. He gracefully
acknowledged this and stated his desire
that when hostilities ended, he should be
asked to take up his position again. He
reportedly passed an act of parliament
which said that any soldier of the KDG,
Having
taken all his
misfortune
stoically, he
now wanted
revenge
officer or other ranks, who
was captured would not be
a prisoner of war, but his
guest at the Kaiservilla for
the duration of hostilities.
When the regiment arrived
in India in 1937, they applied
to restore the Habsburg
Eagle, I suspect to coincide
with the Coronation of King
George VI in May. It was not
approved until September
that year, just in time for
the last mounted parade on
October 23rd.
As part of the refocusing
of the regimental museum in Cardiff, we
are instituting a new permanent exhibit
about Franz Josef. As part of this, in the
autumn of 2024 we visited Bad Ischl for
the first time in ten years, to interview
Markus Habsburg, thus perpetuating
our connection with the Imperial Royal
family. This brought back memories of
2014 and the way the regiment made
such a huge impression on the town.
Having been briefed back then by the
Austrian government that the Habsburgs
had no constitutional role any longer,
we succeeded in nearly causing a diplo-
matic incident! When we were planning
the route that the regiment would take
marching through Bad Ischl, we thought
it only right and proper that Mr. Markus
Habsburg should take the parade. This
was not viewed particularly well as it was
the first time since 1916 that a Habsburg
had taken the salute at a military parade!
JB-H
Markus Habsburg taking the salute of the regimental march past at Bad Ischl in 2014