This photograph from the Museum archives shows HRH The Duke of Edinburgh inspecting members of I Company, 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade (1 RB), at Wardieburn Camp, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya, on 1 November 1956.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh inspecting I Company 1 RB at Wardieburn Camp on 1 November 1956.
Background
On 11 June 1956 1 RB, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel P.A.D. Boden MC, arrived at Singapore from Kenya on board the troopship Dilwara for an operational tour countering communist terrorism in Malaya.
On 1 November 1956 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh was on an official visit to Kuala Lumpur. B Company 1 RB was ordered to provide a guard of honour for his departure but, because of riots in Singapore, his programme was changed. Instead, a visit to Wardieburn Camp was arranged at short notice.
The Duke arrived at the camp by helicopter and began his visit by inspecting a joint guard of honour found by B Company and the 2nd/6th Gurkha Rifles. He then inspected a jungle patrol from I Company and another from 22 Special Air Service Regiment. As he left the parade ground he met and talked with a number of army families including several wives and children of warrant officers and senior NCOs in the Battalion. Although the Duke’s visit was brief it was deemed very successful.
1 RB returned to UK in November 1957 on completion of the Battalion’s operational tour in Malaya.
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh talking to army families.
Corporal Baker, 1 RB, in command of a Ferret scout car at Wardieburn Camp.
