For the next few weeks, the Mounted Guard duty here at Horse Guards will be passed to the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery. The soldiers are extremely visually distinctive from the Household Cavalry due to their black and gold uniforms and the black fur busbies they wear in place of helmets.

You will usually find the King’s Troop firing the gun salutes at Royal and State occasions, and participating in parades such as Trooping the Colour. They also provide teams of black horses and gun carriages to carry the coffin of the deceased at state funerals (as they performed at the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales and Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II).

King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery assuming The Queen’s Life Guard duties, 2016. (National Army Museum)

The King’s Troop are the last surviving regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery, which was created in 1793 during the War of the First Coalition to provide mobile fire support for fast moving cavalry units on the battlefield. While the Royal Horse Artillery continued to see military action up until the conclusion of the Second World War, the increasing mechanisation of artillery over the centuries rendered horse-drawn guns effectively obsolete.

King George VI expressed the view that a troop of Horse Artillery should be retained by the British Army to take part in the great occasions of state. The new regiment was originally formed on 17th April 1946 as the ‘Riding Troop’, a six-gun Royal Horse Artillery battery for the Household Division. 

King George, reportedly at the suggestion of Brigadier John Anquetil Norman, decided that the Riding Troop would be renamed ‘His Troop’ or ‘The King’s Troop’, making the proclamation official after his first inspection of the regiment on October 24th 1947, when he crossed out the word ‘Riding’ and replaced it with ‘King’s’ in the regimental visitor’s book. After her accession to the throne in 1953, Queen Elizabeth II decreed the regiment would retain the title of ‘King’s Troop’ in honour of her late father.

Alongside the Household Division, the King’s Troop has been a key part of Trooping the Colour since 1997. It takes the lead when parading with its guns at ceremonial events, despite the Household Cavalry holding first place in the Army’s order of precedence.

After the conclusion of the ceremony, the King’s Troop moves to Green Park, adjacent to Buckingham Palace and fires a “41 gun salute. This comprises a 21 gun salute with an additional 20 rounds fired to acknowledge their firing position is in a Royal Park.

Gunners of the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery firing a gun salute to mark the anniversary of the accession of King Charles III.

Based at Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, the King’s Troop annually take over mounted guard duties at Horse Guards from the Household Cavalry to allow time for training and for recuperation and relaxation for the soldiers and horses of the Cavalry.