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05
Dec 2022
Last Updated: 04/12/2022
Ripon's Royal Engineers enjoy freedom of the city
A 73-year-old tradition was maintained in Ripon yesterday as soldiers marched through the city
Rousing military music resounded on city streets yesterday morning as Ripon's Royal Engineers held their annual freedom march.
Members of the 21 Engineer Regiment based at Claro Barracks, who returned to the UK in September from postings in Cyprus and Poland, were joined by a band from the Royal Corps of Army Music, as 300 uniformed men and women marched past the town hall and down Kirkgate for a service held in their honour at the cathedral.
Eyes right as the Royal Engineers march past Ripon Town Hall and take the salute from city Mayor Councillor Sid Hawke and other civic dignitaries.
In line with tradition the Engineers, who were awarded the freedom of Ripon in 1949, exercised the rights bestowed on them 73 years ago, by marching in step to the sound of the band with drums beating and bayonets fixed.
The march down Kirkgate.
In addition to the six-month United Nations peacekeeping role in Cyprus that the Engineers took up in March and the detachment to Poland, Ripon-based sappers have served on operations in Northern Ireland, Kuwait, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, providing light role close support that enables the army to live, move and fight.
The Royal Engineers attended a service at Ripon Cathedral
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