PICTURES: Duchess of Cornwall makes royal visit to Bulford
She was there in her role as Colonel-in-Chief of The RIFLES
The Duchess of Cornwall made a special visit to Bulford today (Friday 7th May) to meet a battalion based there.
Her Royal Highness met and spoke to soldiers from the 5th Battalion The RIFLES after she took the role of Colonel-in-Chief of The Rifles in July last year after taking over from the Duke of Edinburgh.
As Covid restrictions begin to ease begin to ease, the Duchess wanted to get out and meet some of the Rifleman from across the Regiment.
At a small reception held outside, she presented five medals for long service and good conduct before going on to meet Riflemen and officers to talk about the demands of their recent deployment to Estonia.
Her Royal Highness said:
"It is a huge pleasure for me to come back to Bulford which I know pretty well from my role a Royal Colonel of 4 RIFLES. It is particularly nice to come back and meet you all for the first time and really to thank you for all you have been doing, especially your tour of Estonia which I know was very challenging.
I also wanted to particularly thank all of your families and partners for literally keeping the home fires burning whilst you were away and also to the Rear Party for doing such a fantastic job in keeping morale up. I would like to say how proud I am to be your Colonel-in-Chief and I hope this is the first of many visits."
5 RIFLES is a Regular Infantry Battalion based on Salisbury Plain and have recently returned from their second operational tour of Estonia.
They have around 600 Rifleman in the battalion.
Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jim Hadfield MBE said to HRH:
"It has been an extremely busy year for your 5th Battalion what with the preparation and deployment to Estonia. This gives me the perfect opportunity to publicly say thank you to everybody here and all those members of the Battalion and their families who are not here for all that they have done.
It means a huge amount to us for you to visit your regiment, it has been an absolute honour to have you with us today."
It was the first visit the Duchess has made to The RIFLES since taking over the role.