They are the final pieces of royal wedding protocol for every Guardsman: faint with dignity and if your bladder can’t take the strain of four hours standing to attention, think of England and don’t leave your post.
The troops who will line the route of the royal procession and escort the royal couple, many of them Foot Guards who will be wearing sweltering scarlet coats and bearskin hats, have been given orders that they must “faint to attention” if the heat proves too much for them next Friday.
Some 1,500 military personnel are training for what the Armed Forces promise will be a minutely choreographed display of precision and ceremony. The route has already been measured by the Army’s senior ceremonial expert, Garrison Sergeant-Major Billy