The PWRR’s Colonel-in-Chief
Until the 14th January 2024, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment was proud to have Her Majesty Queen Margarethe II of Denmark as its Colonel-in-Chief.
The PWRR was only one of two regiments to boast a foreign monarch as our Colonel-in-Chief. The Royal Family are the ceremonial leaders of most other regiments.
Queen Margarethe played an active role in the life of the PWRR. She visited the regiment’s battalions, and held audiences for members of the Regiment at her embassy in London. She attended social functions with the PWRR and even had audiences with senior members of the Regiment at her palace in Copenhagen.
The PWRR’s long Danish connection is one of the many things which makes the Regiment special. Our visitors often ask us about Queen Margarethe. They want to know why she was made the PWRR’s Colonel-in-Chief. In fact, the regiment’s link to Denmark goes all the way back to the beginnings of the British Army.
Prince George of Denmark's Regiment
In 1689, the Holland Regiment returned to Britain from the Netherlands. They became the British Army’s Third Regiment of Foot. Prince George of Denmark, Princess (later Queen) Anne’s husband, was their honorary colonel. At that time, every regiment took their honorary colonel’s name. The regiment became known as the Prince George of Denmark’s Regiment.
By the time George died in 1708, his regiment went back to being called the Third Regiment of Foot. They were nicknamed the Buffs, after the pale colour of their collar and cuffs.
The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment)
In 1906, King Edward VII appointed King Frederik VIII of Denmark as Colonel-in-Chief of The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Edward’s wife, Queen Alexandra, was King Frederik’s sister. It was probably no accident that Edward chose to continue the Buffs’s old link to Denmark.
From then on, the Kings of Denmark served as Colonel-in-Chief to the Buffs.
In 1941, the War Office allowed Danish men to join the British Army. Over a thousand Danish soldiers joined the Buffs. One of these soldiers, Anders Lassen, transferred to the Special Air Service and won a Victoria Cross.
The Queen's Regiment
The Buffs became part of the the Queen’s Own Buffs in 1961 with the Queen’s Own Royal Kent Regiment. King Frederik IX of Denmark remained their Colonel-in-Chief. In 1966, the Queen’s Own Buffs amalgamated again with three other regiments. The county regiments of Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Middlesex became the Queen’s Regiment.
The Queen’s Regiment had two Allied Colonels-in-Chief. King Frederik IX served as one. Juliana of the Netherlands had been Colonel-in-Chief to the Royal Sussex Regiment before the amalgamation. She served as the other Allied Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment.
Queen Margarethe II became one of the Queen’s Regiment’s Allied Colonels-in-Chief in 1972, when she became Queen.
The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment
The Queen’s Regiment and the Royal Hampshire Regiment combined to become the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment in 1992. Queen Margarethe remained our Allied Colonel-in-Chief. Diana, Princess of Wales had been the Colonel-in-Chief of The Royal Hampshire Regiment. She became Colonel-in-Chief to the PWRR.
On the 25th of February, 1997, Queen Margarethe became our sole Colonel-in-Chief, a position she has held ever since.
Queen Margarethe’s son, King Frederik X, presented 4 PWRR with their first set of colours on the 23rd of April 2023 on his mother’s behalf.
Our Next Colonel-in-Chief
The PWRR look forward to announcing their next Colonel-in-Chief in the next few months.
