Changing of the Guard - Buckingham Palace, during the war

Discussion in 'The Brigade of Guards' started by Slipdigit, Oct 5, 2010.

  1. Calvin Carson

    Calvin Carson Member

    Hi I guess this ties in with my Great Uncle James Skelly's military record.
    He was attested in 17/2/1940 and transferred to the HB after training.
    Then it wasn't until 43 when he was called into action when the Scots Guards were regrouping in Syria. (2 years 251 days later.)
    I assume during this period the holding battalion would be preforming guard duties,
    Then there are these articles about the RAF and Canadians guarding the palace in 43.
    I guess then that after the guards suffered heavy losses the Holding Battalions were called to the front line and these other unusual regiments took over the guard duties.
     

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  2. Calvin Carson

    Calvin Carson Member

  3. Old Git

    Old Git Harmless Curmudgeon

    I think guard duty was mounted during the war, and the guard was chnged frequently, but not sure it would have had all the attendant pomp and circumstance as in peace time. You might also wish to look up something call the Coates Mission; a secret unit setup, from Guardsmen, to protect the Royal Family and get them out of London, thence the UK, in the event of Invasion. A friends father was part of it but I think he didn't find out until his Dad had died!
     
  4. Calvin Carson

    Calvin Carson Member

    That is interesting. I did a quick google and found this posted on another forum (possibly from the previous post mentioned friend)
    Below is a cut and paste quote from another forum

    "Faced with the probable invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany, from 1941 to 1942 a special British army unit existed for the purpose of evacuating the King and Queen and their immediate family in the event of German invasion. They were also tasked with protecting the Royal Family in case of paratroop attack on Buck House.

    Led by Major James Coats, MC, Coldstream Guards, later Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Coats, it comprised a company of the Coldstream Guards. There were five officers (other officers included Ian Liddell, later a VC recipient, and Wilfrid Sydenham Thompson, both of the Coldstream Guards) and 124 Guardsmen.

    They were equipped with ten vehicles - four armoured cars, two armoured Daimlers, and four Guy wheeled cars manned by the 12th Lancers and the Northamptonshire Yeomanry, in the Morris Detachment. They were based in Bushy Park, London. The Guy wheeled cars were at Windsor.

    The role of the unit, which supplemented the Guards battalions at London and Windsor, was to evacuate the Royal Family ahead of the advancing German army. It would be expected that the Royal Family would move from house to house as the strategic and tactical situation demanded.

    After the threat of invasion receded, in 1942 the role was taken over by the Household Cavalry, and the Coats Mission was switched to guard Churchill when on country breaks at Chequers, the British Prime Ministers' official country retreat. Due to secrecy the name 'Chequers' could never be mentioned, it was referred to as the 'Special Area' instead.

    My dad, Jim Coates, (who was NOT the CO of the Mission, it was just a co-incidence that they had the same name) who was Coldstream Guards 1940-46 told me about the Coats Mission many years ago. He had mentioned the mission and told me that a special pantechnicon (removals lorry) was fitted out as a living room, and that would be the Royal Family's transport in case of evacuation.

    He also said that they would have been taken to Holyhead in Anglesey where the RN would then have taken them to Canada to set up a court-in-exile.

    It was only after his death that I found out from one of his muckers in the Coldstream Association that he'd been part of the Coats Mission."
     
  5. Calvin Carson

    Calvin Carson Member

  6. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

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