Berwick’s Armed Forces Day began with a Drumhead Service in St Andrew’s Wallace Green Church, followed by the Armed Forces Day Parade.
The Parade was led by the Berwick Royal British Legion Pipe Band and including detachments from the ACF and ATC, members of veteran’s organisations and former crewmen of the last HMS Berwick, who had visited the town with their vessel in 1975. Dozens of re-enactors also joined the Parade to illustrate the town’s long military heritage as a garrison town.
The day’s programme ended with a concert performed by the Cassino Band of Northumbria Army Cadet Force on the square at Berwick Barracks.
During the weekend, uniformed re-enactors brought t o life the stories of the solders of Berwick’s Garrison through the Ages.
Authentic period soldiers’ encampments were set up beside Berwick’s historic ramparts and a programme of displays and demonstrations of drill and musket and cannon firing were staged at locations around the town’s fortifications and at the Barracks, Gunpowder Magazine, Main Guard and riverside fortifications.
Our Garrison Story -27th & 28th June and 31st July 2015
Minden Day Parade -
31st July 2015
This Parade is held in Berwick every year by the Kings’s Own Scottish Borderers Association to mark the Regiment’s part in one of the most famous infantry actions in the history of the British army.
On 1st August 1759, six British infantry battalions advanced against and defeated a French army many times their strength.
On their way to the battle, the regiments passed through rose gardens and picked the flowers to decorate their hats and drums.
The successors of the original “Minden Regiments” celebrate this occasion by giving all those on parade a rose for their headdress.
