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1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards
Wales. The new barracks will house QDG, 1 Rifles, Prince of Wales Division Band, and an Education Centre. It will be the MODs flagship camp for the 21st century and completely self sufficient in terms of energy as well as being carbon neutral. More importantly, it will see the return of QDG to the heart of its recruiting area, with a projected completion date in late 2028 – early 2029.
Not forgetting the fun, HQ / ROG hosted an all-ranks party (the first since the lifting of covid restrictions). This was a great opportunity for everyone to let off some steam and have a good time. We also celebrated St David’s Day; however, this was done on 08 Mar so that we could link up with the members of the regiment deployed on Op Newcombe in Mali. The normal St David’s Day chal- lenges took place in Mali as well as Robertson Barracks via a video link, the CO managed to score the Sqn’s efforts in the gym all the way from Africa, HQ Sqn coming in first place!
During March and April, members of HQ helped facilitated a Pre Non Commis- sioned Officers Cadre on Thetford Training Area, started preparations for the yearly logistic inspections, conducted a number of visits and took part in Adventure Training. Members of the HQ / ROG also had the opportunity to attend a battlefield study with our paired Reserve regiment, The Royal Yeomanry. The study called ‘Exercise Yeoman Digger’ took place over two weeks in Turkey and covered the WW1 Gallipoli campaign, the first week covering the battlefield study followed by a week sailing off the Turkish coast.
In May, OC HQ and Capt Matt Hansen (ROG 2IC) were invited to visit our Allied Regiment, The Governor General’s Horse Guards (GGHG) in Toronto, Canada to celebrate Trooping of the Standard and a drumhead service. This event cele- brated 200 years of continuous service to Upper Canada and Canada and to bless the Regiments newest Battle Honour “Afghanistan”. A previous visit to GGHG by the QDG Band in the early 90s certainly made an impression and the stories from that visit are legendary amongst some of the people we met. Part of the visit included attending the Canadian RAC Conference, hosted in the Ontario Regiment Tank Museum. When the curator heard we were British Army he asked, “Do you know George Clegg and Shaun Banister? One of them owes me a pack of fags”. Small world! We were hosted wonderfully over the week, firm friendships made, and the bond between our two regiments strengthened. We look forward to returning the hospitality in the coming year.
In June we started to receive people returning from Op Newcombe, which marked the transition from ROG back
OC HQ and FM
Sgt Dunn Inspecting the Food HQ BBQ
Ops, Adjt & Chater
Adjt CinC & FM Cardiff