PRESS RELEASE
EXERCISING OF FREEDOM OF SHERBORNE BY THE RIFLES
FRIDAY 21ST SEPTEMBER 2018
On Friday 21st September 2018 the county regiment of Dorset, The Rifles, will exercise the Freedom of Sherborne at the invitation of the Town Council. It will exercise this Freedom in the traditional way by marching through the town centre with Bugles sounding and Bands playing.
The event will start with a short service of Remembrance at Sherborne Abbey at 2.00 pm, after which the troops will assemble on Half Moon Street outside Sherborne Abbey for an inspection by the Mayor of Sherborne, Councillor Dominic Elliott, and the senior Rifles officer, Major General Rupert Jones. The Mayor will welcome the Regiment and General Jones will reply on behalf of The Rifles.
At 2.50 pm the marching troops (around 120 including the Band and Bugles, regular and reserve soldiers, army cadets and veterans) will step off, turn left into Cheap Street and march past and salute the Mayor, General Jones and HM Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, Mr Angus Campbell, before continuing up Cheap Street, turning right into Newlands, right into Hound Street, right again into Cheap Street and left into Abbey Road. The parade will finish outside the main entrance to Sherborne School.
After a Reception for invited guests, the Band and Bugles of The Rifles will carry out a Sounding of Retreat at 5.00 pm in the school courtyard. This is a stirring musical ceremony at which members of the public will be most welcome. The day’s events will finish at 6.00 pm.
The Rifles is the largest infantry regiment in the British Army, with five regular and three reserve battalions, one of which has a company based in Dorchester. Its link with Sherborne goes back through its antecedent regiments, the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment and, before that, the Dorsetshire Regiment and its predecessor, the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot, first raised in 1702. Today, The Rifles continues to recruit officers and soldiers from Sherborne and from Dorset and is extremely proud that this close and historic link is being recognized formally by the Exercising of Freedom.
For more details, contact:
Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Trelawny
Rifles Regional Secretary (South West)
Rifles Office, Wyvern Barracks, Exeter EX2 6AR
exeter@the-rifles.co.uk
01392 492434
07803 932648