The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and The Band of the Coldstream Guards

March Into the Frank Erwin Center

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are Scotland’s senior regiment and only regular cavalry. The Regiment was formed in 1971 from the union of two famous regiments, the 3rd Carabiniers and the Royal Scots Greys. The 3rd Carabiniers had themselves been constituted in 1922 from the amalgamation of the old 3rd Dragoon Guards and the Carabiniers (6th Dragoon Guards). The history of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards is therefore the record of three ancient regiments and, through the Royal Scots Greys, whose predecessors were raised by King Charles II in 1678, they can claim to be the oldest surviving Cavalry of the Line in the British Army.

The Pipes and Drums of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards have their origin in the small pipe band that came to the Royal Scots Greys in 1946 as a result of demobilization of certain Scottish Territorial Armored Corps units. Prior to this time there had been smaller and quite unofficial pipe bands in the regiment, including one in India in the 1920’s which performed mounted.
The Band of the Coldstream Guards was formed in 1650 by George Monck, a General in Oliver Cromwell’s “New Model Army” and can therefore claim to be one of the oldest regiments in the world. In 1661, shortly after the restoration of the monarchy, they were re-commissioned by King Charles II as Household Troops and from the town of Coldstream, which lies just inside Scotland near Berwick-Upon-Tweed where it was first formed.

The Coldstream Guards became the first band to visit North America when it traveled to Canada in 1903, one of two western tours around that time. In 1907 at the invitation of the French Government, the band was the first within the Brigade of Guards to visit France. In 1920 when Robert Evans took over as Director of Music, the band had a strength of sixty-six. Throughout the 1920’s the band continued to take part in state, ceremonial and a hectic round of public engagements all over the country, and as recording techniques improved, more fine records were produced. In 1926 the band again toured Canada, and on one occasion while in Calgary, they were transported in a fleet of Studerbaker limousines! Make sure you are a part of this noble occasion by joining the audience at the Frank Erwin Center on February 21!