PICTURE GALLERY: One final goodbye to ‘our boys’

THE Colours of the now disbanded Second Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers were paraded in Warwick for the final time on Sunday.

The annual Fusilier Veterans’ Parade marked what was described as a poignant and significant occasion as the Colours were laid up in St Mary’s Church and will never be used again.

Many former Second Battalion members from across the country attended the parade, presided over by the Fusiliers’ Colonel of the Regiment and the Army’s Chaplain General, Major General David Coulter CB QHC, and the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire, Timothy Cox.

The Fusiliers have been recruiting in Warwickshire since the early 1700s to what was originally known as the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and then Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers.

But the Second Battalion, which the Warwickshires became, was disbanded in 2014 as part of cost cutting by the British Army.

The Fusiliers are based in Tidworth, Wiltshire, but will retain a small area headquarters at St John’s House.

Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jez Lamb of the Fusiliers, said: “Having served for eight years with the Second Fusiliers, from a personal perspective it is clearly sad to close this chapter.

“But I know that as the First Fusiliers go forward we remain ready to meet the threats and challenges of the future whilst preserving the reputation and remembering the sacrifices made by the Second Fusiliers.”