If you perform in public, you have to rehearse no matter what it is.
CSM Steve Williams and CSM Matthew Brooks at Wellington Barracks
Photo by Heathcliff O’Malley courtesy of London Telegraph.
(CSM is the acronym of company sergeant major)
According to the official British Army website, a Company Sergeant Major is classified as a Warrant Officer Class 2. “This is a senior management role focussing on the training, welfare and discipline of a company, squadron or battery of up to 120 soldiers. WO2s act as senior adviser to the Major in command of the sub-unit and may also be selected for a commission as an Officer.”
http://www.army.mod.uk/structure/32321.aspx
Guardsman Simon Edis uses a clothes brush on Guardsman David Shelvey’s tunic at Wellington Barracks.
Photo by Heathcliff O’Malley courtesy of London Telegraph
The men are wearing their thick wool ceremonial uniforms so they are hot that is for sure. And it gets really hot under those bearskins. Previously made from the pelts of Canadian black bears, the “bearskin” hats have been made of synthetic bear fur for decades.
19 May 2010: A guardsman collapses on Horseguards during rehearsals for Trooping the Colour in celebration of the Queen’s Birthday on June 12.
Photo by Heathcliff O’Malley courtesy of London Telegraph
The Grenadier Guard is taken off the parade ground by stretcher bearers
Photo by Heathcliff O’Malley courtesy of London Telegraph
Daily Telegraph photographer Heathcliff O’Malley captured these behind-the-scenes pictures of the rehearsals at Horseguards Parade and Wellington Barracks.
The battalion of Foot Guards on ceremonial duties in London are housed in Wellington Barracks in London situated only three hundred yards from Buckingham Palace. The short distance allows them to reach the palace quickly in an emergency to reinforce the guards on duty.
(Photo by Lewis Clarke courtesy of Wikipedia)
Members of the Scots Guards take part in the rehearsals for Trooping the Colour
Photo by Heathcliff O’Malley courtesy of London Telegraph.
“Trouping the Color” is now carried out on the Queen’s official birthday. Unless a sovereign was born in the summer, the nation celebrates the sovereigns official birthday in the summer when the weather is apt to be better. The military ceremony of trouping the color “dates back to the early eighteenth century or earlier, when the colours (flags) of the battalion were carried (or ‘trooped’) down the ranks so that they could be seen and recognised by the soldiers.”
explanation from the official website of the British monarchy