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Second to None
(The Coldstream Guards Newsletter)
Edition 3
February 06

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Mixing With The Jet Set…

GDSM WALTON LEARNS TO SKI IN VAL D’SERE AND HAS THE TIME OF HIS LIFE.

For the past 5 years, Gdsm Walton has been a busy man. Let’s face it, you don’t get much time to feel bored in one of the British Army’s busiest battalions! On the 13th January 2006 however, Gdsm Walton from Support Company didn’t mind the early reveille, or the rush to grab breakfast and get on parade. On this occasion, he was boarding a mini-bus bound for Val d’Sere in France, destination of the rich and famous skiing jet-set.

He was one of 15 Guardsmen heading off to the slopes to take part in the first of three Battalion Ski-Camps. Having never tried skiing before, Gdsm Walton found the whole experience challenging both physically and mentally. Despite the sudden realisation that skiing wasn’t quite as easy as it looked, he still found the time to enjoy the various distractions; beautiful scenery and thousands of students from every corner of Europe enjoying their gap year breaks or just a couple of weeks away from the classroom. As a novice, Gdsm Walton and Co’ found the long days on the slopes exhausting yet addictive. He now hopes to take up skiing as a full time hobby. “This is one of the best things I’ve done since joining the Army.” He boldly asserted to one of the Non Commissioned Officers over a beer.

The highlight of the week was finally being given the opportunity to take a run down the World Cup Downhill Ski course, an experience that none of the Guardsmen on Ski Camp will forget in a hurry. Despite many wobbles, slips and gut-wrenching moments on the way down the treacherous slalom course, all of the boys made it to the bottom on two skis, rather than ending up as a large, fast-moving snowball with arms and legs!

The second and third Ski-Camps went on in much the same vein, with many members of the Battalion now looking forward to next winter and another chance to hit the slopes.

Images from the article above - hold mouse over images for more info


“Ski Camp rocks! By the way…are we really getting paid for doing this?”


 

The Coldstream Guards Look at Life Course

Haven’t joined up yet? Just thinking about it? Just curious?



Read on….

The Coldstream Guards are extremely keen to get the right kind of recruit and likewise, a potential recruit needs to be sure that he is committing himself to the right career. In order to ensure that both of these things are achieved, the Regimental Recruiting Team under WO2 Dave Naylor run regular ‘Look at Life’ courses.

The courses happen at least every four weeks and are held at Pirbright in Surrey. The course is free of charge and you will be given a travel warrant to enable you to get to and from the course. In order to get on a Look at Life course you will need to ring the number shown at the foot of each page of this newsletter and then arrange to visit your local Coldstream Recruiting Sergeant who can be found in your local Army Careers Office.

There are Coldstream Guards recruiting Sergeants at the following offices:

Redruth, Barnstaple, Croydon, Chelmsford, Leicester, Sheffield, Doncaster (from April 06), Leeds, Middlesborough, Newcastle and (by May 06) Sunderland.

Once you have expressed your interest and been booked onto a course, you will receive a full briefing pack, travel documents, etc. The courses run from Tue-Fri and a rough breakdown of the course is as follows:

Day 1:
Arrive at Pirbright by 1400 hrs. Settle into accommodation. Conduct 1.5 mile run and press-ups/sit-ups as a basic physical assessment. This is followed by team building exercises in the gym. Dinner at around 1700 hrs, followed by some briefing DVDs and a verbal brief for the next day. Then a chilled out evening in the local welfare room and an opportunity to ask questions of the staff. Bed and lights out by 2300 hrs.

Day 2:
Early start at 0630 hrs, breakfast, then onto some more challenging team building exercises. Basic instruction on the Assault Course then lunch. Following lunch, a four mile cross country run, after which there is a team race over the Assault Course. Dinner, then another briefing evening.

Day 3:
Up and breakfast, into smart clothes. Visit London (Wellington Bks, Royal Palaces, watch changing of the Queens Guard). Travel to Windsor to visit the 1st Battalion. Tour of barracks and demonstrations by specialist platoons, then visit the Sergeants Mess for tea/coffee and a briefing by the Regimental Recruiting Warrant Officer. Return to Pirbright for dinner and debrief.

Day 4:
Individual debriefings up until 0930 hrs, then move to train station for journey home.

Look at Life is our most successful recruiting initiative. Attendees who join the Coldstream Guards having performed well on the course are more than 80% more likely to pass out of basic training successfully the first time, compared with those recruits who have not attended Look at Life.

There is no obligation to join up, if you attend the course. If it’s not for you, then so be it. If it turns out to be your cup of tea then you will have already taken a valuable step towards becoming a fully trained Coldstream Guardsman. So if you have been thinking about it, and you have what it takes to become a member of the longest serving regiment in the British Army, then take that step and either speak to the Recruiting Office or ring our contact number below. Go on, we dare you…


Images from the Look at Life!


A visit on the Look at Life
 

Regimental Sport

SCRUM DOWN IN EAST YORKSHIRE!
COLDSTREAM GUARDS v GOOLE SELECT 15

On Thursday 16th February 2006 the Battalion Rugby Team returned to the field after a nine month absence due to their tour of duty in Iraq. The freshly re-formed team went into action against a Goole Select 15 side at the Westfield Banks Rugby Club in Goole, East Yorkshire. The kick-off was at 2000 hrs under floodlights with a crowd of 300 spectators, which included members of the local police, ambulance, Army Cadets and members of the Hull Branch of the Coldstream Association.

The match was fiercely contested and the weather was suitably cold and wet. Despite a valiant performance by the Battalion, Goole’s well drilled side finally managed to get past the Coldstreamers (but only just!) Throughout the match, the Battalion team rotated its full squad through the pitch in order for every member to get a run out after such a long time away from the sport. The match ended as a win for the local side, 10 – 0 to Goole, but it was a victory which they had been made to work extremely hard for.

Afterwards, the Battalion team was well looked after in the Rugby Club and also managed to attract three new recruits to the regiment in the process! All members of the team are congratulated on a fine performance, both on the rugby field and on the recruiting front too!
 

Stepping Out For Charity

THE COLDSTREAM THREE PEAKS EXPEDITION

As a further demonstration of the Coldstream Guards’ link with the Yorkshire area, a joint charity expedition was mounted recently by members of the 1st Battalion and members of the Goole Mountaineering Club. On Boxing Day 2005, the team of five Coldstreamers and five Civilians set out to tackle the three highest peaks in England, Scotland and Wales respectively. As most people are aware, those peaks are Scafell Pike, Ben Nevis and Snowdon.

Over a period of three days, the team drove over six hundred miles and successfully completed the ascent of all three peaks despite some grim weather. They were joined on the last day by a number of wives and girlfriends for the ascent of Snowdon. The result of their effort was over a thousand pounds raised for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Cancer Ward. Just as commendable was the fact that the Coldstreamers had given up three days of their well deserved post-Iraq leave to take part in the challenge.

On Thursday 16th February 2006, during a recruiting surge in Sheffield, some of the members of the expedition went to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital to formally hand over the cheque for £1004. It was a fitting end to a day that saw 112 Sheffield lads register their interest in joining the Coldstream Guards. 18 of those lads are currently being processed by the Coldstream Recruiting Sergeant in Sheffield.

Image: Richard Collins and Mark McHugh of Goole Mountaineering Club along with CSM Roffey and LCpl Linden of the 1st Battalion handing over their cheque to the hospital staff.
 

Around And About



“We are definitely getting too old for this game!”
LSgt Thompson and Sgt Jackson feel the pressure during rugby training.



What do you mean ‘I can hear it ticking’ ?
No.2 Coy conduct trip-flare training in Wales



“…and once you’ve filled up my car with all that petrol, you can give it a good wash too.”
Gdsm McHugh overseas the Look at Life course during a strength test.



"...by the left..."
Sgt Pickersgill puts No.6 Platoon through its paces during the Commanding Officers Drill Test
in preparation for the Battalion’s return to ceremonial duties.
 

Lieutenant Colonel GCC Waters

Commanding Officer 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards


On the 24 Feb 06, Lt Col GCC Waters assumed the appointment of Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Previously he has commanded the Anti-Tank Platoon, No.1 Company and No.2 Company within the Battalion. He recently spent two years as the Adjutant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst prior to being promoted and appointed to command the Battalion.


Lt Col Waters is determined that the Regiment will continue to exemplify the core values of the British Army, those being Selfless Commitment, Courage (both moral and physical), Discipline, Integrity, Loyalty (upwards and downwards in the chain of command and sideways to other members of the team) and Respect for Others. He is also determined to ensure that as a Regiment the Coldstream Guards excel in the core skills of infantry soldiering, those being shooting and physical fitness.




Image: Lt Col GCC Waters, who assumed command of 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards on 24 Feb 06
 

Colours…

AN EDITORIAL BY THE REGIMENTAL RECRUITING WARRANT OFFICER.

Standing as a guest in the Officers Mess a couple of weeks ago, I glanced across the ante-room and my gaze fell upon the Colours. As my eyes took in the familiar sight of the two Colours I experienced that same old tingle at the back of my neck. The Regimental Colour, effectively the Regiment’s Identity Card, protectively crossed the rich crimson silk of the Queen’s Colour. The Queens Colour, blessed by the hand of Her Majesty is our Royal License to bear arms on behalf of the Sovereign. Emblazoned upon the colours are 44 of our Regiment’s most notable battle honours, and as I studied the columns of embroidered place names, I came across the title WATERLOO.

Automatically, my brain began to download the story of the Coldstream Guards at Waterloo. To recount the full story here would be well beyond the scope of this newsletter, however, in brief outline, the story of the Coldstream at Waterloo goes something like this…

On 18th June 1815, Wellington’s British-Allied army of 68,000 men faced Napoleon’s 76,000 veteran French troops. Only two thirds of Wellington’s troops were of any real quality and he was desperate for assistance from the Prussians who were somewhere off to his left flank, being pursued by another 30,000 Frenchmen. His right flank was open which worried him greatly, as it was in this direction that he would need to head in order to gain the safety of the channel ports in the event of a French victory. To that end, he decided to fortify the Chateau de Hougoumont, a large walled farm, which was situated on his right flank and well forward of his main defensive position. He knew that the French would have to overwhelm this strongpoint in order to turn the flank. Accordingly, he garrisoned Hougoumont with his finest troops, the Foot Guards. Initially, the three light companies of the 1st, Coldstream and 3rd Guards occupied the buildings, supported by some Hannovarian troops. The garrison was commanded by Lt Col James McDonnel of the Coldstream Guards.

The Battle of Waterloo commenced at approximately 1130 hours and for the next eight hours, the defenders of Hougoumont found themselves under constant attack from the French. The crisis point of the battle for Hougoumont came when a group of Frenchmen led by a huge Lieutenant smashed through the North Gate. Immediately, a group of thirteen Officers and Non Commissioned Officers from the Coldstream and 3rd Guards counter attacked, driving the French back through the gate at the point of bayonet and sword. Lt Col McDonnel and Cpl (later Sgt) Graham of the Coldstream Guards put their shoulders to the gates and forced them shut. They held the gates closed until an improvised locking bar was dropped into the latches. Later, the farm buildings were set on fire by enemy artillery but still the defenders fought on. Eventually, with the exception of two companies who remained on the main defensive position with the Colours, the whole of the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards were despatched to reinforce Hougoumont. The Battalion swept through the orchard around Hougoumont, driving the French back with volleyed fire and a spirited bayonet charge.

As history records, in the late evening, the Prussians arrived on the French flank, just as the 1st Foot Guards shot Napoleons Imperial Guard to pieces with a fearsome display of musketry. The French army broke and fled and the Allies had won the Battle of Waterloo. Hougoumont remained in British hands throughout. At the end of the day, over 4,000 dead or wounded Frenchmen lay in the vicinity of the smouldering Chateau. Wellington, in his despatches after the battle, made two significant comments.

“The outcome of the battle rested on the closing of the gates of Hougoumont”

and

“None but the British could have held Hougoumont, and only the best of them at that”

But the defence of Hougoumont had cost the Coldstream Guards dear. Many a good Coldstreamer sacrificed himself in the defence of that humble old Chateau. As I gazed at that embroidered name, WATERLOO, I was minded that every stitch in that battle honour represented the life of a good Coldstreamer who knew his duty and did it. The Colours therefore are more than just a symbol of identity. They serve as the Battalion’s mobile cenotaph; a reminder of those who have gone before and earned our Regiment the reputation that it enjoys. Officer, Warrant Officer, Non Commissioned Officer and Guardsman, shoulder to shoulder, watching each others backs, fighting for each other, second to none…

ONE TEAM – ONE FIGHT

In November, the trainee Guardsmen from No.21 Platoon, Guards Company, Infantry Training Centre Catterick conducted a battlefield tour of the World War One battlefields of the Somme and Ypres. During their tour they took time out with their Barrack Room Instructor, LCpl Kelly, to track down the graves of Coldstreamers who had given their lives during the conflict. Pictured are TGdsm Dutton, Freeman, Hill, Morris, Smith and LCpl Kelly at the grave of an unknown Coldstreamer.

No.21 Platoon pass out on the 24 Mar 06 and join the Battalion on 18 Apr 06 following Easter Leave.





 

Second to None
The Regimental Newsletter
for the
1st Battalion Coldstream Guards
Produced by the Coldstream Guards Regimental Recruiting Team