The Rifles parade through Chepstow ahead of two-year deployment in Cyprus

Troops from 1st Battalion The Rifles have paraded through Chepstow ahead of a two-year deployment to Cyprus.

During the parade in Chepstow town centre, troops also met the Duke of Kent who is Royal Colonel of 1 Rifles.

The personnel will now move to Dhekelia in Cyprus, which Lieutenant Colonel Colin Oliver, Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion The Rifles, said will see troops "asked to do a number of important tasks".   

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This, he explained, will include "security for the strategic military sites and critical national infrastructure".

"We will also act as the Regional Standby Battalion, based at high readiness to act as a versatile, forward-based, acclimatised infantry battalion able to undertake a wide range of short-notice, low-threat, niche or small operations, primarily focused on the Middle East and North Africa," he said.

1 Rifles will take over from the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, before returning to Wales in the summer of 2025.

"Chepstow has been extremely good to this battalion since its arrival in 2007," he said.

"Whilst here, the battalion has deployed on numerous operational tours to Afghanistan and Iraq and to multiple overseas exercises in countries such as Kenya and Belize.  "We have also supported numerous UK domestic efforts – in particular when there was flooding in Wales and also during the Covid-19 response in providing ambulance drivers and vaccination teams and, most recently, providing instructors to train the Ukrainian armed forces. "Throughout all that, Beachley Barracks and Chepstow has been our home and we have always been looked after and treated with respect. 

"Rifleman have been married here, have had children here, have settled here and have died whilst based here and we have memorials to them, both in our own remembrance garden and in the Commonwealth War Grave in Beachley. "

Based at Beachley Barracks since 2007, the troops will return to Wales in 2025 after the deployment and take on a new role as a Light Mechanised Battalion driving Foxhound vehicles.

They will then stay at Beachley until new multi-million-pound facilities are built at the refurbished Caerwent Station.