0:00:14 > 0:00:15It is a bleak March day
0:00:15 > 0:00:18as the 5th Royal Inniskilling Royal Dragoon Guards
0:00:18 > 0:00:21commemorate an officer who died in peace time after uttering
0:00:21 > 0:00:27words familiar to millions, "I'm just going outside and may be some time."
0:00:27 > 0:00:31For Captain Lawrence Oates, "some time" was intentional eternity.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Badly injured on Scott's South Pole expedition
0:00:34 > 0:00:38he sacrificed himself in the hope his colleagues would survive.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43It was March 17th 1912, his birthday and St Patrick's Day.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46He had served with the Inniskillings in the Boer War.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50They are the only regiment in the British Army to commemorate a person
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and not a battle honour on their regimental day.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, turn!
0:00:58 > 0:00:59Quick march.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20When you consider we have such famous officers as Baden Powell
0:01:20 > 0:01:23and Field Marshall Allenby and Colonel Sir Mike Hansell
0:01:23 > 0:01:27who have served in the regiment it may seem rather strange that it's
0:01:27 > 0:01:32Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates who is the man who we commemorate,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36but in the eyes of the regiment
0:01:36 > 0:01:41and perhaps school boys everywhere it is the fact that this man showed
0:01:41 > 0:01:46the most amazing self sacrifice and endurance on Scott's expedition,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49especially in 1912.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02And this is a quote from a Etonian in 1974.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06"At school there is a bronze bass relief head of Oates
0:02:06 > 0:02:07"outside the library.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09"His nose is bright and shiny,
0:02:10 > 0:02:12"it looks as if he's got a streaming cold.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16"That's because we always touch his nose as we go past
0:02:16 > 0:02:20"in the hope that some of his courage might rub off on us."
0:02:37 > 0:02:40At the head of the parade is the Salamanca staff.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44Exactly a century before Oates's death the 5th Iniskillings
0:02:44 > 0:02:49annihilated the 66th French regiment at Salamanca in the Peninsular war,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52relieving them in the process of their drum major's mace.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53The two nations have been arguing
0:02:53 > 0:02:55about its rightful ownership ever since.
0:02:55 > 0:02:57I understand from time to time
0:02:58 > 0:03:01that the successor to the 66th Infantry of the Line
0:03:01 > 0:03:04in the French army has asked for the staff back
0:03:04 > 0:03:09and as far as we are concerned it was a fair and squarely won
0:03:09 > 0:03:12piece of booty of war and it is part of our battle honours.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15It is as if someone asked for our standard back.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18It's ours and they can ask until they're blue in the face, basically,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20we're keeping it.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24At least one French cavalry officer appears to understand
0:03:24 > 0:03:26it's rather like the rules of cricket.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30I think it's a very good thing
0:03:30 > 0:03:35to have some souvenirs of the past.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37It's a very good thing.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42But what of Napoleon's golden eagle, taken at Waterloo?
0:03:42 > 0:03:48I think now we must be in the future and we must build Europe
0:03:48 > 0:03:56and be strong to defend our values against, over bad values.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Not all ex-enemies are so conciliatory.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Another officer visiting the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
0:04:02 > 0:04:05who captured the eagle became so incensed at pictures
0:04:05 > 0:04:08of his ancestors being bayoneted around the mess walls
0:04:08 > 0:04:09that he stomped out.
0:04:10 > 0:04:11He, too, was French.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16Oh, the damn frogs, yes, yes.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18God bless them. God bless them.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22I feel rather like Uncle Arthur in the Mitford book.
0:04:22 > 0:04:24Was it Uncle Henry in the Mitford book?
0:04:24 > 0:04:28You know, would only refer to the Germans as the damned Huns.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Well, yes.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Colonel David Wrought, possibly not quite Edward Heath's conception
0:04:34 > 0:04:37of a committed European, was a King's Own Scottish Borderer,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41a regiment celebrating its 300th anniversary this year.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44What have they been up to in that time?
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Oh, wandering round the world
0:04:48 > 0:04:51as amphibious soldiers. You know, bashing the French
0:04:51 > 0:04:55which was of course exactly what the French were there for,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57and sorted that out.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00Company! Company!
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Stand...guard!
0:05:07 > 0:05:10In their bonnets the King's Own Scottish Borderers wear what appear
0:05:10 > 0:05:13to be antennae capable of receiving satellite TV.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16In fact they were decreed by Queen Victoria
0:05:16 > 0:05:20at the height of her Balmoralist enthusiasm for all things Scottish.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23"Blackcock feather," she said, "would look nice."
0:05:25 > 0:05:27But Queen Victoria lived in an era
0:05:27 > 0:05:31when words like ecology were exclusive to Charles Darwin.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34blackcock feathers became so scarce that troops had to be
0:05:34 > 0:05:37kitted out with hen feathers that curled up in the rain.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41But thanks to forestation programmes and controlled culling
0:05:41 > 0:05:44by game keepers the genuine article is slowly returning.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49But at one time the shortage, now relieved by a cottage industry,
0:05:49 > 0:05:51was so acute that the regiment's attempts
0:05:51 > 0:05:54to get their hands on some sound like something out of John le Carre.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Well, we were very fortunate at that point,
0:05:57 > 0:05:59or so we thought, to have one of our
0:05:59 > 0:06:06members working, a KOSB, working as a defence attache in Warsaw,
0:06:06 > 0:06:11not that far away from here in Berlin in fact, and he discovered that
0:06:12 > 0:06:17there was a source of blackcock feathers easily available in Poland
0:06:17 > 0:06:19and very cheap.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23And so we corresponded here from Berlin to him and it was agreed
0:06:23 > 0:06:26eventually that we were going to get something in the region of a thousand
0:06:26 > 0:06:29of these blackcock feathers which
0:06:29 > 0:06:33looked tremendous. That was going to solve the future
0:06:33 > 0:06:36for the next 20 years or so.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Well, the deal got very close,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42in fact the feathers were on their way over the wall.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44As I understand it,
0:06:44 > 0:06:49finally we weren't allowed to have them because the Soviets intervened.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52The reason given
0:06:52 > 0:06:56later through the diplomatic channels that they felt
0:06:56 > 0:07:01this was reinforcing NATO's morale by bringing these across
0:07:01 > 0:07:06so we didn't get them. So there we are, our potential adversaries
0:07:06 > 0:07:11have recognition, have some idea of the value of traditions.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24What may appear to be English soccer fans looking for an off-licence
0:07:24 > 0:07:29is actually an exercise known as FIBUA, fighting in built-up areas.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33British regiments stationed in Berlin have built a mock town, Ruhleben,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36for this purpose, among them are the Black Watch.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45But the Black Watch have another side to them.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48They may not sing Crimond with quite fervour of the Welsh
0:07:48 > 0:07:50but religious observance is encouraged
0:07:50 > 0:07:54and as part of the Church of Scotland they have their own Kirk sessions.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57It raises a question we put to the Dean of Windsor,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59very much a former military man.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Is the soldier, a man whose job is facing death,
0:08:02 > 0:08:04a naturally religious man?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07No. No, he's like the rest of us,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10but I think he's more perhaps like
0:08:10 > 0:08:12a farmer...
0:08:12 > 0:08:14or a sailor.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19A farmer is near to the land, he's near to the things of nature.
0:08:19 > 0:08:24A sailor is near to the sea, he sees the elements at their worst,
0:08:24 > 0:08:29and I don't think a soldier will scoff at God in quite the same way
0:08:29 > 0:08:31that people outside will.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36I remember an old commanding officer of mine, great, great character,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39who heard two young officers
0:08:39 > 0:08:43in the mess one day sort of laughing at the local chaplain
0:08:43 > 0:08:45and he turned on them and he said,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50"You are either fools or you've never been shot at.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54"If you'd been shot at you'd have learned how to pray."
0:08:54 > 0:08:55And I think that's very true.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59When you've got a couple of machine gun bullets coming across
0:08:59 > 0:09:02the top of your head you soon learn how to pray.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05SINGING IN GAELIC
0:09:14 > 0:09:17Another Scottish regiment, the Queen's Own Highlanders,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19has audible traditions.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21For a rare moment the pipes are silent.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24The Gaelic singing is accompanied by a Clarsach, a harp.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28The harp is the Scottish predecessor of the bagpipes
0:09:28 > 0:09:30by at least 600 years.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54But the pipes are not redundant for the Queen's Own Highlanders.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The dancing that once celebrated Scottish victories
0:09:57 > 0:10:00in battle is now a serious cultural item on the regimental curriculum.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19This isn't rehearsal for some knees up in the officers mess,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22you come here to get it right.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Well, I judged they're really not quite ready to pass off the floor
0:10:26 > 0:10:28and dance at a regimental guest night.
0:10:28 > 0:10:31I think the problem really, unusually,
0:10:31 > 0:10:35lies at the beginning of the dance in the strathspey.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50The dancing is for the entertainment of the guests.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Without exception British army regiments are excellent hosts
0:10:54 > 0:10:56yet hosts only now coming to terms with the existence
0:10:56 > 0:11:00of a previously neglected species known as women.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07It's not always been thus. General Duncan Cameron, Black Watch,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11did not approve of the alternative gender.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Because he was a great misogynist
0:11:13 > 0:11:16it was clear that he wouldn't approve of ladies in the mess
0:11:16 > 0:11:21so at some time just before the last war somebody took a decision rashly
0:11:21 > 0:11:25that women should be allowed into the mess for the first time.
0:11:25 > 0:11:26So other mess members said,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29"Well Duncan Cameron would turn in his grave."
0:11:29 > 0:11:31Fine, well we understand that.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35So then somebody else said "Well we can't possibly hang him on the wall,
0:11:36 > 0:11:38"let's saw him in half."
0:11:38 > 0:11:41And the story has it from the olden bowls that
0:11:41 > 0:11:46when ladies came into the mess only General Cameron's legs were shown.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49When the rest of us were in the mess his head and shoulders.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Alas, during the war his legs were lost
0:11:52 > 0:11:54and we only have his head and shoulders left,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58so he is presumably is still spinning in his grave.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59Not surprisingly,
0:11:59 > 0:12:01this lady officer is brazenly drinking
0:12:01 > 0:12:04from Joseph Bonaparte's looted chamber pot.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09Ladies can come into the mess for tea, for instance, in a specific room
0:12:09 > 0:12:11but the overriding consideration
0:12:11 > 0:12:14remains that it is the home of the bachelor officers.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18But what of today's subalterns? Would they like women in the mess?
0:12:18 > 0:12:19I'm not a bachelor officer
0:12:19 > 0:12:22but I think that the answer to your question is yes.
0:12:22 > 0:12:28It's a rather stultified existence to live in a mess without
0:12:28 > 0:12:32any contact with girls at all. That, of course, doesn't happen any more.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36There are lots of parties and lots of occasions when the girls come in,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39and I think if you asked the bachelor officers they would agree with you
0:12:39 > 0:12:41that perhaps they would prefer
0:12:41 > 0:12:45what could loosely be called a more normal existence in this respect.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Can you describe what it was like in the old days, say 20 years ago?
0:12:50 > 0:12:54In the old days women were expressly excluded from the mess,
0:12:54 > 0:12:55as I understand it.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59What happened about wives I don't know but of course one must remember
0:12:59 > 0:13:03that the regiment, this regiment in particular, spent a very long time
0:13:03 > 0:13:09away in India and those occasions were without wives.
0:13:09 > 0:13:12The officers who were married came home to England,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14came home to see and be with their wives,
0:13:14 > 0:13:19but largely the regiment was unmarried when it was serving abroad.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Yet Clinton Dawks of the 4th 7th Dragoon Guards contributed
0:13:22 > 0:13:25to the changing times actually during the making of these films.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27He invited our lady researcher
0:13:27 > 0:13:31to witness a mess function traditionally exclusive to men.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35She became the first woman to do so in 300 years.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37Enlightenment of a more strategic nature
0:13:38 > 0:13:42came in the 1930s when the British Army conceded that the combat horse
0:13:42 > 0:13:45was obsolete and turned to the tank.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49Yet in the 1930s the army was still on old boys network.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53Colonel Charles Napier, descendent of a distinguished line of generals,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55recalls the day he joined the club.
0:13:55 > 0:14:01Well, no, 1937 was when I took my entrance exam to the army.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06I had to pass the examination and although there wasn't the rigid
0:14:06 > 0:14:13and very searching and very fair selection procedure that there is now
0:14:13 > 0:14:19with their practical tests and so on, there was an interview
0:14:19 > 0:14:22and the interview as far as I was concerned was the saving grace
0:14:23 > 0:14:26because out of a total of about 1,000 marks
0:14:26 > 0:14:29450 of them were for the interview.
0:14:29 > 0:14:31And my interview was absolutely splendid.
0:14:31 > 0:14:39Going into the long marble corridor through huge doors
0:14:39 > 0:14:41before the board,
0:14:41 > 0:14:47which was sitting behind a large, long green baize table,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52terrifying array of generals and civil servants,
0:14:52 > 0:14:57and the voice in the centre said,
0:14:57 > 0:14:59"Is your name Napier?" And I said "Yes, Sir."
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And I thought at least that's one question right.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06And he said, "Sit down, Napier," so I sat down
0:15:06 > 0:15:10and there was a bit of a pause and the chap further along said,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13"Oh, no," said the bloke, the Chairman,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17"He can't be." He said, "Well, come on, ask the boy."
0:15:17 > 0:15:21So he said, "Freddy here says you're Jock Napier's boy."
0:15:21 > 0:15:23So I said, "Well, my father was a soldier,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26"certainly I think he was known as Jock."
0:15:26 > 0:15:28"There you are, I told you so."
0:15:28 > 0:15:30"Good God," he said, "is the old bugger still alive?"
0:15:32 > 0:15:35He said, "Well he must be older than God."
0:15:35 > 0:15:38I said, "He's still very fit, sir."
0:15:38 > 0:15:41And so that was a couple of questions right.
0:15:41 > 0:15:46Then there was another pause and a chap right out on the flanks said,
0:15:46 > 0:15:51"If he's Jock Napier's boy he must be Dodo's half brother."
0:15:52 > 0:15:56So everybody hoisted that in for a bit
0:15:56 > 0:16:00and then another out on the other flank said,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02"Hell of a girl, Dodo."
0:16:02 > 0:16:03HE LAUGHS
0:16:03 > 0:16:06And then there was a short pause and he said,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08"Damn good horsewoman, I mean."
0:16:08 > 0:16:09So the chairman said,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13"Well, after all that we better get on with the interview."
0:16:13 > 0:16:15He said, "Read any books?"
0:16:15 > 0:16:17So again, Freddy spoke up.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21"Course he doesn't read any books, Jock never read a book in his life."
0:16:21 > 0:16:26So he said, "Well, never mind."
0:16:26 > 0:16:28I said, "Well I have read one, Sir,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30"I've read one specially for the board."
0:16:30 > 0:16:32"Don't be impertinent."
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Then there was another sort of a pause and he said,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36"Why do you want to come in the army?"
0:16:36 > 0:16:38And then again another chap said,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42"Poor little devil couldn't help it with Jock as a father."
0:16:42 > 0:16:45So that's how I got in the army.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48I think they gave me 425 out of 450.
0:16:48 > 0:16:52They asked me one other question like what was going on in Waziristan.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54Fortunately I knew the answer to that.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56REPORTER: It sounds a bit like nepotism.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Wouldn't do. Wouldn't do the present system much good.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Progress in the British Army has never been revolutionary,
0:17:03 > 0:17:05always evolutionary.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08This is the Marquis of Londonderry
0:17:08 > 0:17:11dressed as Colonel of the 18th Hussars.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15The interesting thing really about this picture is the fact that
0:17:15 > 0:17:17most of the uniform he's got on,
0:17:17 > 0:17:22as well as being extremely gaudy also did have some utilitarian purpose.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24If you were a cavalryman
0:17:24 > 0:17:29you would either be going for the thrust like that with your sword
0:17:29 > 0:17:33or the cut, bringing the sword down or across your opponent.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36And so here they had a form of
0:17:36 > 0:17:42very primitive armour in all the gold frogging going across his coat here.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45And that can really be compared to
0:17:45 > 0:17:49the present day flak jacket, of which this is an example here.
0:17:49 > 0:17:55Also the busby is tall and has quite a strong rim to it
0:17:55 > 0:17:59so if you are coming down it again will deflect some of the force.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02So perhaps that could be considered the equivalent to
0:18:02 > 0:18:05this little number here, the modern...
0:18:05 > 0:18:09polycarbonate helmet, issued now to all members of the army.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16The jacket here is known as the pleat and you can see that it is fur-lined,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19and that is really your cold weather gear and here, again,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22we have the equivalent of it
0:18:22 > 0:18:25and this is my one and extremely scruffy it is, too,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27but it's lined in this padded material
0:18:27 > 0:18:30in order to keep you warm in exercise
0:18:30 > 0:18:32and in battle.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36And last but not least, going round and over his shoulder
0:18:36 > 0:18:39to a little box at the back he's got somewhere to keep his
0:18:39 > 0:18:42few private but very useful knick-knacks.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44This has been replaced, unfortunately,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47by this stuff which is the conventional webbing.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49And you can see that it gets
0:18:49 > 0:18:54extremely dirty and that's after just a couple of days out on exercise.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57One wonders really how these people looked
0:18:57 > 0:18:59after they'd been on campaign for six weeks or so.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01When you go on exercise
0:19:01 > 0:19:06or you go to war I think you are extremely unfashionably dressed.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08The sweat of going around
0:19:08 > 0:19:12carrying all this lot, I mean this is hardly Gucci accessories is it?
0:19:17 > 0:19:20Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is the regimental museum
0:19:21 > 0:19:23of the Northumberland Fusiliers, now amalgamated into
0:19:23 > 0:19:25the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29and it's a suitable resting place for one of its volunteer heroes,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Drummer the dog.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36In 1898 the battalion was ordered to Gibraltar again and then it stopped
0:19:37 > 0:19:39at Gibraltar and then it went down from there to Egypt
0:19:39 > 0:19:43and to Sudan where the regiment took part in the Battle of Omdurman.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Now, Drummer was present at the Battle of Omdurman
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and he wears the Queen's Sudan medal and the Sudan medal
0:19:50 > 0:19:52with the bar Khartoum.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54He took part during the Battle of Khartoum.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57According to the reports he was running about in the battlefield
0:19:57 > 0:20:01sort of jumping and trying to catch the bullets as they were winging by.
0:20:01 > 0:20:03He thought they were flies.
0:20:03 > 0:20:07During the Battle of Omdurman and the Sudan which was
0:20:07 > 0:20:10a very well-publicised campaign,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14Queen Victoria got to hear about this little dog running about in the field
0:20:14 > 0:20:17and she said she thought he should have a gallantry award.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20But I suppose...I don't know
0:20:20 > 0:20:22and the war office prevailed upon her and said
0:20:23 > 0:20:25no, you know, it will be making a mockery, I suppose,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27of gallantry awards.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29But anyway, so she decreed that he would be awarded
0:20:30 > 0:20:33the campaign medals and clasps for the engagements he took part in.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38He was present in many engagements in this case denoted by the clasps
0:20:38 > 0:20:41on his Queen's Sudan medal.
0:20:41 > 0:20:44He was present at Belmont, Modder River, Bloemfontein, Magersfontein,
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Kimberley, Diamond Hill,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50Johannesburg, and overall he has seven
0:20:50 > 0:20:53what is known as battle bars on his medal.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56He was wounded once
0:20:56 > 0:20:59and photographs exist where he had just a slight wounded shoulder.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02After the regiment was ordered home
0:21:02 > 0:21:06and the fighting died down he lived quite happily with Colonel Ray
0:21:06 > 0:21:10until the 20th July 1902
0:21:10 > 0:21:12when unfortunately he picked up a lump of meat
0:21:12 > 0:21:16that someone had left around laced with strychnine poisoning.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18So that was the end of Drummer.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Drummer's much-decorated dog's own paper adventures
0:21:22 > 0:21:24were crammed into eight short years.
0:21:24 > 0:21:26Naturally, being British,
0:21:26 > 0:21:28his obituary notice appeared in The Times.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Drummer isn't the army's only commemorated animal.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37A ram called George posthumously made it to the officers mess.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39Do you know George?
0:21:39 > 0:21:41- Very well, sir. - Do you ever take snuff?
0:21:41 > 0:21:42- No, sir. - No?
0:21:42 > 0:21:44- No. - Can I just show you how it's done?
0:21:44 > 0:21:45- Yes, Sir.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48This was given to us by Colonel Sproat
0:21:48 > 0:21:51just after amalgamation along with his cousin.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55You would break off the snuff from inside
0:21:55 > 0:21:58so you've got a nice smooth till,
0:21:58 > 0:22:02and then with the spoon there
0:22:02 > 0:22:04you would take it out and you would put it into
0:22:04 > 0:22:07the little snuf thing there
0:22:07 > 0:22:12and with the pastel made absolutely certain that it was ground down.
0:22:12 > 0:22:15You then...
0:22:15 > 0:22:20And then finally with the little foot,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23brush it off, make certain it was clean.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25- Very impressive. - Over to you.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29This fiercely bearded general is another of the Napiers,
0:22:29 > 0:22:31a conqueror of Sindh.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34With so many battle honours on the family tree, let alone
0:22:34 > 0:22:35regimental colours,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39Charles Napier must surely be an entrenched traditionalist.
0:22:39 > 0:22:41Well, no, I'm not.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43I can't say frankly that I am.
0:22:43 > 0:22:50For instance, although I have the utmost regard and respect
0:22:50 > 0:22:55for the qualities of the British
0:22:55 > 0:22:59and the Scots in particular,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I believe that we have to move beyond that now
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and I feel that the family has done
0:23:05 > 0:23:09what it can over the last 200-300 years
0:23:09 > 0:23:15to play its part within the fabric of State,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19but I believe we have now gone beyond that and that the future lies
0:23:19 > 0:23:25in bigger organisations.
0:23:25 > 0:23:31What has to be achieved now cannot be achieved on purely national stages.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35These stages are too limited and the next stage is surely
0:23:35 > 0:23:39the European one and Europe, to me,
0:23:39 > 0:23:45makes sense politically, economically and socially.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51You can't pursue the crime, you can't pursue the economics,
0:23:51 > 0:23:55you can't pursue defence solely on a national stage
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and it must now be on a European stage
0:23:58 > 0:24:03and therefore those who want to serve the State now, I believe,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06should now concentrate on serving Europe.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10But whatever the protagonists of Europe decree, the army itself knows
0:24:10 > 0:24:13precisely where its loyalties lie.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15Mr Vice, the Queen.
0:24:17 > 0:24:19Gentlemen, the Queen.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27The Queen.
0:24:29 > 0:24:31In recent years the British Army,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35like so many citadels of British tradition, has had its knockers.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38They may just care to consider this.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Well, it's perfectly true.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44I mean there's the old bit of doggerel from the Marlborough wars
0:24:44 > 0:24:48when God is near and danger nigh, God and soldier is the cry,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53when war is over, danger righted, God forgot and soldier slighted.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56Yes, the soldier has always been unpopular. I can remember even
0:24:56 > 0:25:00as a young man myself before the war when if soldiers got
0:25:00 > 0:25:05in uniform into a railway carriage civilians got up and moved out of it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09But I think that has changed, strangely enough, since the war
0:25:10 > 0:25:14and I think that their example in countless areas
0:25:14 > 0:25:19like Cyprus and Palestine and all over the world,
0:25:19 > 0:25:24in the Falklands and particularly in Northern Ireland, and with television
0:25:24 > 0:25:27showing their discipline and their restraint,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32I would say now that soldiers have a very high regard in the nation.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35But I think what is even more important,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38which people have got to realise,
0:25:38 > 0:25:44is that we only enjoy our way of life and our sense of freedom
0:25:44 > 0:25:46because we as a nation
0:25:46 > 0:25:51are able to produce young men who in times of peace are prepared
0:25:51 > 0:25:57to put their lives on the line and if necessary be killed in order that
0:25:57 > 0:26:01we may still hold the freedom which we have to live our lives.
0:26:01 > 0:26:07The rest of us selfishly enjoying our own way of life do it on the backs
0:26:07 > 0:26:11of the soldiers who stand between us and our freedom.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Highlanders, stand at ease.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21The British Army may have quaint ways of doing things.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23This man, a Queen's Own Highlander,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26is leaving the battalion after 22 years.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29By tradition he is chaired out by men of his own rank.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38Unlike hundreds of thousands of others
0:26:38 > 0:26:42he is not called upon to die for you and me.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Well, Sergeant, it gives me great pleasure
0:27:27 > 0:27:29to not only say good bye to you
0:27:29 > 0:27:30on behalf of the battalion
0:27:30 > 0:27:34but also to give you your final dram
0:27:34 > 0:27:37on your final day in the battalion.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52Slainte.
0:27:52 > 0:27:53Slainte.
0:28:04 > 0:28:06Three cheers!
0:28:06 > 0:28:08- Hip hip. - Hooray.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09- Hip hip. - Hooray.
0:28:09 > 0:28:10- Hip-hip. - Hooray.
0:28:11 > 0:28:12And one more!
0:28:12 > 0:28:13Hooray!