Veterans don bowler hats for Cavalry Sunday parade in London
Veterans from the British Army, including from the Second World War, gathered in London's Hyde Park to honour the memories of the fallen on Cavalry Sunday.
Wearing distinctive bowler hats and carrying furled umbrellas, serving and retired officers from the Cavalry and Yeomanry regiments marched through the park, 99 years since the Cavalry Memorial was placed there.
Marching in the annual parade were representatives from The Life Guards, The Blues and Royals, The Queen's Royal Hussars, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, The Light Dragoons – and many more were in attendance.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, who served in the British Army for 21 years, attended the parade and received the tip of the hat as a salute when the procession marched past.
Traditionally, all officers on the parade wear pin-striped suits and bowler hats.
They carry umbrellas that are never unfurled because the Duke of Wellington is believed to have told his officers that the French would laugh at them if they opened them.
Captain Tim Rayson of the Combined Cavalry Old Comrades Association said: "The bowler hat is protective of you, and the umbrella could have been a swordstick, so it was, therefore, a concealed weapon.
"But we never open our umbrellas. If it rains, we get wet."
The procession was led this year by The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards which marched in front of hundreds of members of the public who gathered in the capital's park.
Lance Corporal Christopher MacDonell, the piper for the Dragoons, said: "That was an incredible thing to be a part of.
"It's my first time doing it. I was just in the King's coronation last weekend so it's good to be back doing something like this, remembering the fallen is incredible."
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