Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

The earlier lessons built the parts: foot drill, marching and movement, the compliments a soldier pays, the parade and its occasions, and the sanctity of the Colours. This lesson brings them together in the two occasions on which ceremonial is most demanding and most meaningful. The first is the guard of honour, drill raised to its highest standard to honour the Sovereign, the Princely House, and the State's most distinguished guests. The second is the military funeral, where the Army renders the last honours to its own dead and gives the precision of the square wholly over to dignity and respect.

As in every lesson of this course, this is the knowledge layer. To present arms on a single word of command, to slow-march without a falter under the weight of a coffin, to stand a long inspection without a flicker, these are physical skills built on the square under a drill instructor and certified in person. Here you learn the conduct of each ceremony: the order in which its parts come, the standard each must reach, and the meaning that makes the standard worth reaching. Learn the sequence and standard now, so that when you take your place in a guard or a bearer party you already know the shape of the occasion and your part within it.

By the end you will be able to describe the guard of honour and the occasions on which it is found, set out the conduct of a guard step by step from forming up to march-off, explain the honours rendered at a military funeral and their order, name the conventions that govern the National Flag, the ensign, and the Colours on these occasions, describe the human care owed to the bereaved and the place of the chaplain, and explain how the honours rendered to the dead express the Army's value of respect.

Key Terms

Guard of honour: a body of soldiers drawn up to receive and honour the Sovereign, a member of the Princely House, a visiting head of state, or another person of high distinction, rendering a formal salute and standing inspection.
Royal salute: the highest compliment the Army renders on parade, given to the Sovereign and the Princely House; a general salute is rendered to others entitled to honours.
Present arms: the movement, made on the word of command, by which an armed body brings its weapons to the formal saluting position; it is the body of the royal or general salute a guard renders.
Inspection: the walking of the ranks by the person honoured (at a guard) or by the inspecting officer (at any parade), examining each soldier's turnout and bearing at close quarters.
Bearer party: the party of soldiers, usually six or eight, who carry the coffin at a military funeral with slow and dignified precision.
Slow march: the measured, deliberate marching pace, slower than the quick march, used for mourning and for the most solemn ceremonial.
Firing party: the detail that fires volleys of blank rounds over the grave or at the committal as a mark of military honour to the dead.
Volley: one round fired as a single body on the word of command; the firing party customarily fires three volleys in succession.
Last Post: the bugle call that marks the close of the day and, at a funeral or act of remembrance, sounds the farewell to the fallen.
Rouse: the bugle call (the Rouse, or in its longer form the Reveille) sounded after the Last Post, at the end of the silence or on the following morning, recalling the living to their duty. It is the Commonwealth call; it is never the United States "Taps", which is a separate tradition the RKA does not use.
Resting on arms reversed: the mournful arms position, muzzle to the ground and hands resting on the butt with the head bowed, taken by an armed party at a funeral as a mark of grief.
Half-mast: the position of mourning to which a flag is lowered, having first been hoisted fully to the peak; the most public sign of the Principality's mourning.

The guard of honour

A guard of honour is a body of soldiers formed up to receive and honour a person of the highest distinction: the Sovereign above all, members of the Princely House, a visiting head of state, an ambassador presenting credentials, or another dignitary the State wishes to honour. It is mounted on state occasions and on formal arrivals and departures. Of all the Army's ceremonial duties it is held to the very highest standard, because it is the Army on display in its most public and most scrutinised form.

The guard is drawn up in line, armed, commonly with the Colour paraded if the unit is entitled to carry it. Where a band is available it parades with the guard to play the salute and mark the movement of the person honoured. Bearing is everything: every soldier stands at the highest pitch of stillness and precision, turned out immaculately, because the guard exists to be looked at closely and to do honour by the perfection of its drill. To the Sovereign or a member of the Princely House the guard renders the royal salute, the highest compliment the Army can pay on parade; to others entitled to honours it renders a general salute. The salute is given on the word of command as one movement, the whole guard presenting arms together, and a Colour on parade is treated exactly as the next sections require.

The person honoured will commonly inspect the guard, walking its ranks while the guard stands at the present or at attention. This is the heart of the occasion and the reason the standard must be flawless: the guard is examined at arm's length, soldier by soldier, and any fault of turnout, dress, or steadiness is seen. No ceremonial duty shows the meaning of drill, the instant, exact, collective response built on the square, more plainly or judges it more closely.

The composition of the guard

A guard of honour is a picked body, chosen for turnout and bearing, because it must withstand close inspection and stand wholly still for a long time. In Commonwealth practice a full guard is a sizeable body drawn up in two ranks under a guard commander, with a subaltern or warrant officer and a small number of supernumeraries to dress the ranks and pass the words of command. Where the unit is entitled to carry it, the Colour parades with its escort; where a band or corps of drums exists it parades to sound the compliments. The guard is armed with the parade weapon, and every weapon, belt, and boot is brought to the same exact standard, because a single soldier out of dress mars the whole line. Selection for a guard is itself a mark of trust: it says the soldier can be relied on to be the Army's face at the closest range, under the eye of the Crown or its most honoured guests.

The guard is timed as carefully as it is dressed. It forms up, is inspected by its own commander, and stands ready well before the person honoured is due, because a guard must never be caught unready or moving when the dignitary arrives. Much of its duty is the discipline of waiting: standing easy on the order, coming smartly to attention at the warning of arrival, and holding perfect stillness until the occasion is complete. The standard lies as much in the long minutes of stillness as in the movements themselves.

The conduct of a guard of honour, step by step

The drill of each movement belongs to the square; what follows is the sequence in which those movements are strung together to receive a dignitary, and the standard each step demands. The exact words of command and the precise dressing are the drill instructor's province. Learn the order of events here, so that you know what comes next and never have to think about it on the day.

First, the guard forms up and is prepared. It marches on, or is formed up, in good time, and the guard commander dresses the ranks and carries out a close preliminary inspection, correcting every fault of dress and turnout before any guest is near. The Colour, if carried, is marched on with its escort and takes its place. The band, if present, takes post. The guard is then stood at ease, or stood easy, to wait, the supernumeraries watching for the dignitary's approach.

Second, on the warning of arrival, the guard is brought to attention and made ready. Every soldier is still, eyes front, weapon correct, the long discipline of waiting giving way to the sharp readiness of the occasion. The guard commander posts himself to receive the person honoured.

Third, on the arrival of the person honoured, the guard renders the salute. On the word of command the whole guard presents arms as one movement: the royal salute to the Sovereign or a member of the Princely House, the general salute to any other dignitary entitled to honours. Where a band is present it plays the appropriate salute. Where the unit carries the Colour, the Colour is lowered in salute only if the person honoured is the Sovereign or one standing in the Sovereign's place; to any other person, however distinguished, the Colour is not lowered. The guard holds the present until the salute is acknowledged and the order is given to shoulder or order arms.

Fourth comes the inspection. The guard stands at the present, or is ordered to the shoulder or to attention, and the person honoured walks the ranks, commonly with the guard commander, examining the soldiers at close quarters. This is the test the whole standard exists for. Each soldier remains rigidly still, eyes front (or following the inspecting party with the eyes alone where the drill so requires), showing no flicker of movement however long the inspection lasts.

Fifth, the compliments are maintained throughout the remainder of the visit. The guard salutes again on the departure of the person honoured exactly as on arrival, presenting arms on the word of command, the band playing and the Colour treated by the same rule. Honours are paid on every coming and going of the dignitary while the guard is mounted, not only at the first arrival.

Sixth and last, when the occasion is complete and the dignitary has departed, the guard is marched off in good order, the Colour and band with it, and only then is it dismissed. The bearing held to the very end is part of the honour. A guard does not relax the moment the guest's back is turned, because the public is watching still, and the guard is the Army until it is off parade.

   A GUARD OF HONOUR RECEIVING A DIGNITARY (sequence)

   1. FORM UP & PREPARE   guard marched on in good time; commander
                          dresses ranks; Colour & band take post;
                          close preliminary inspection; stand at ease

   2. READY               on warning of arrival, guard called to
                          ATTENTION; stillness; commander posts to receive

   3. SALUTE (arrival)    on the word of command the guard PRESENTS ARMS
                          as one; band plays the salute
                          - Sovereign / Princely House -> ROYAL SALUTE,
                            Colour LOWERED
                          - other dignitary           -> GENERAL SALUTE,
                            Colour NOT lowered

   4. INSPECTION          dignitary walks the ranks; each soldier
                          rigidly still; turnout & bearing judged at
                          arm's length

   5. COMPLIMENTS HELD     honours maintained throughout the visit;
                          salute repeated on the dignitary's DEPARTURE
                          by the same rule

   6. MARCH OFF           guard, Colour and band marched off in good
                          order; bearing held to the end; then dismissed

The exceptional standard runs through every step: a standard of turnout, that no fault of dress survives the preliminary inspection; of steadiness, that no soldier moves under the dignitary's eye; of timing, that the salutes fall exactly on arrival and departure and the guard is never caught unready; and of unison, that a hundred hands move as one on a single word. None of it is for show alone. A guard of honour is the Crown's own soldiers paying, by the perfection of their drill, the highest compliment the Army can pay in person, and the standard is the compliment.

The royal salute and the Colour

One convention must be stated again, because it is the point on which ceremonial is most easily got wrong. A Colour is dipped only to the Sovereign, or to a regent or vice-regal representative standing in the Sovereign's place, and to no one else. When a guard bearing the Colour renders the royal salute to the Sovereign, the Colour is lowered; when it renders a general salute to any other person, however distinguished, the Colour is not dipped. This is not a discourtesy to the guest. It is the mark of what the Colour is: a consecrated emblem of the Army's loyalty to the Crown, lowered to the Crown alone. Lesson 06, "The Colours and the Ensign", sets out the distinction in full; here it governs every salute a guard renders.

The National Flag and the Army Ensign are flags, not Colours, and flags are never dipped at all, to anyone. A soldier of the guard need not work the conventions out in the moment, since the orders given will be correct, but he should understand the reason, because understanding keeps a tradition observed with meaning rather than by rote.

Who is entitled to the royal salute and who to the general salute is taught more fully in Lesson 04, "Compliments and Marks of Respect", which explains why a compliment is rendered to the appointment and the Crown rather than to the person. The guard of honour is that lesson brought to its highest pitch: the same salute a soldier renders alone with the hand, rendered now by a whole armed body in unison with the present arms, and carrying exactly the same meaning.

The soldier's part in state occasions

Not every ceremonial duty is a full guard. Much of what the Army does on state occasions is quieter and no less important: providing escorts, lining a route, or standing as a dignified military presence at an event of the State. A soldier may spend a state occasion at attention along a road while a procession passes, at a doorway, or marching as part of an escort, and the temptation is to think such a duty matters less than the guard at the centre of the day. It does not. To the public lining the same route, that soldier is the Army, exactly as the aid-to-the-civil-power course teaches that the soldier at a cordon is the Army to the people there. His bearing does as much to make or mar the occasion as the bearing of the guard.

The demand is the same whether a soldier is the centre of attention or a fixed point at its edge: immaculate turnout, perfect stillness, and a steady, dignified bearing held for as long as the duty lasts, however cold, however long, however little anyone seems to be watching. The discipline first built standing still on the square, doing precisely what is required because it is required, is exactly the discipline a long ceremonial duty demands.

The long stand deserves naming, because it is where unprepared soldiers fail. Standing rigidly still for a long period is physically hard: the legs tire, the back aches, the mind wanders, and in heat or cold the body protests. The trained soldier manages it without breaking the stillness. He locks nothing rigidly but holds the position by balance; he keeps the weight even and the knees unlocked enough that the blood does not pool; he fixes the eyes on a distant point and lets the mind settle rather than fight; and he never shifts, scratches, or looks about, because the one thing the public remembers is the soldier who fidgeted while the State conducted its business. If a soldier feels faint, the disciplined course is to fall out properly or be helped out, not to sway and topple in the ranks, and a well-run guard plans for the relief of soldiers on a very long duty. The endurance of the long stand is itself a form of drill, and is honoured as such.

Military funerals and the honours of the dead

The military funeral is the occasion on which the Army renders the last honours to its own. It is conducted in slow time, with the slow march and the muffled solemnity that mark grief and respect, every movement performed with the greatest care, because here precision is not display but reverence. A funeral done well tells one of the Army's own, and the family and the watching public, that this life was valued and this service honoured.

The honours have a settled form, each part with its meaning:

The bearer party, commonly six or eight soldiers, carries the coffin with slow, exactly matched steps, bearing the weight of a comrade with a dignity that conceals all effort. To carry a fallen soldier steadily and without falter is among the most demanding tasks of bearing the Army asks, and among the most honourable.
The National Flag drapes the coffin, laid over it as the senior flag of the Principality and the emblem of the State the soldier served. This is one of the proper uses of the National Flag (or, where the service custom so provides, the appropriate ensign). It is removed and folded with ceremony before the committal, then presented to the next of kin.
The firing party fires volleys of blank rounds over the grave, an ancient mark of military honour and a salute in arms to the dead. The volleys, fired as one on the word of command and customarily three in number, are the Army's formal farewell rendered with its own weapons.
The Last Post is sounded, the bugle call that closes the soldier's day and here sounds the farewell to one whose duty is done. After the silence that follows, or on the following morning, the Rouse is sounded, recalling the living to their duty. These are the Commonwealth calls the Army keeps; they are never replaced, and in particular never by the United States "Taps", which belongs to a different tradition the RKA does not use.
Where the death is that of the Sovereign or a member of the Princely House, of a serving member, or where national mourning is declared, the National Flag is flown at half-mast on the order of the Royal Court (a later section sets out the form and authority).

One convention must be stated plainly, because it is the error this lesson most wants to prevent. The Colours are not dipped at a funeral, nor lowered to the fallen, however senior or however loved. Colours are dipped only to the Sovereign. In mourning a Colour may be draped with black crape or cased, carried covered as a mark of grief, but it is not dipped, for that compliment belongs to the Crown alone. The honour shown to the dead is great, and is shown in every other form the funeral takes.

The order of a military funeral, step by step

As with the guard, the drill of each movement is certified on the square; what follows is the order in which the parts of a funeral come, so that a soldier on parade knows the shape of the whole and his place in it. The exact form varies with the rite, the wishes of the family, and the faith of the dead, and the family's wishes and the requirements of their tradition always govern. What is set out here is the military framework into which those wishes are fitted, never a rigid scheme imposed over them.

The funeral is rehearsed beforehand, and this is not optional. A bearer party that has not drilled the slow march, the lift, the carry, and the lowering until they need no thought will falter on the day, and a falter at a funeral is a wound to the family. The bearer party rehearses with a weighted coffin until every step is matched and the lift and lower are smooth and silent; the firing party rehearses its volleys until they fall as one; the bugler is sure of the calls; and the whole parade knows the sequence and the words of command. The rehearsal is the price of the dignity, and it is paid in full.

On the day the parade forms up and receives the coffin. The coffin is borne by the bearer party, draped with the National Flag correctly oriented, and is carried in the slow march, the bearer party's steps short, matched, and unhurried, the weight hidden. An armed escort or firing party may accompany in slow time, and where the drill so provides the escort marches with arms reversed or comes, at the graveside or committal, to rest on arms reversed, muzzle to the ground and head bowed. A band, lone piper, or bugler may lead or accompany in slow time. The procession moves with the muffled solemnity proper to grief, every soldier holding the bearing of mourning: slow, controlled, eyes level, no haste.

At the place of committal the coffin is set down with care, the lowering as smooth and silent as the lift. The religious or other rites of the dead are conducted by the chaplain or appropriate minister, and the family's tradition leads; the military honours are rendered around and in support of those rites, not in place of them. Before the committal the National Flag is removed from the coffin and folded with ceremony by the bearer party, deliberately and without haste, and is later presented to the next of kin as a token of the State's gratitude and the Army's honour. The flag is not buried; it goes to the family.

The firing party fires its volleys, customarily three, each on the word of command and each as a single body, the formal salute in arms to the dead. Then the bugler sounds the Last Post into the stillness, and at its close the parade keeps a period of silence, a body of disciplined soldiers standing wholly still in shared respect. The silence is broken by the sounding of the Rouse (or the longer Reveille), recalling the living to their duty and lifting the parade back toward the day. Where flags are flown at the place, they are at half-mast for the mourning. The parade is then brought to order and marched off, in slow or quick time as the drill provides, the bearing of dignity held until it is off parade.

   THE ORDER OF A MILITARY FUNERAL (military framework)
   (always fitted to the family's wishes and the rite of the dead)

   0. REHEARSE        bearer party drills the slow march, lift, carry,
                      lower with a weighted coffin; firing party drills
                      the volleys; bugler sure of the calls

   1. FORM UP /       parade formed; coffin received, DRAPED with the
      RECEIVE         NATIONAL FLAG correctly oriented

   2. PROCESSION      borne by the BEARER PARTY in the SLOW MARCH;
                      escort/firing party in slow time, arms reversed /
                      rest on arms reversed; band or lone bugler/piper

   3. COMMITTAL       coffin set down with care; the rites of the dead
                      conducted (chaplain / minister; family's tradition
                      LEADS)

   4. FLAG FOLDED     NATIONAL FLAG removed and FOLDED with ceremony
                      before burial; LATER PRESENTED TO THE NEXT OF KIN
                      (the flag is NOT buried)

   5. VOLLEYS         FIRING PARTY fires three volleys, each as one body
                      on the word of command (salute in arms)

   6. LAST POST       bugler sounds the LAST POST (the farewell)

   7. SILENCE         a period of SILENCE; the parade wholly still

   8. ROUSE           the ROUSE / Reveille sounded; the living recalled
                      to duty  (Commonwealth practice; NEVER US "Taps")

   9. MARCH OFF       parade brought to order and marched off; flags at
                      HALF-MAST for the mourning; bearing held to the end

The thread through every step is absolute dignity, demanded without exception. The slow march hides the weight; the lift and lower are silent; the flag is laid, folded, and presented with care; the volleys fall as one; the calls are exact; the silence is unbroken. A funeral is the one parade with no margin for the casual or the careless, because the audience is a grieving family at the worst hour of their lives, and the message of every exact movement is that their soldier was valued and is honoured to the end. The bearing demanded is not the bearing of display but of reverence, and it is the highest the course asks.

The pastoral and human dimension: caring for the bereaved

The choreography of a funeral is only its outward form. At its heart is a grieving family and a comrade lost, and the honours mean nothing if the human care beneath them is absent. To carry the coffin steadily, to fold the flag with reverence, to present it to a widow or a parent with quiet dignity, is to tell a family without a word that their loss is seen and shared and that their soldier mattered to the Army that buried him.

The bereaved have needs that drill cannot meet, and the soldier should understand where his part ends and another's begins. The grief of a family, the long aftermath of a death, the questions of meaning and faith a death raises, these are carried by the chaplain and, where the family wishes, by the ministers of their own tradition. The chaplain's place at a military funeral is central, not incidental: it is the chaplain who conducts or supports the rites, who sits with the family before and after, who is the confidential ear and the bridge to the family's own community of faith, and who is trained for the depths of grief in a way an untrained soldier, however kind, is not. The Caring for Those in Need course teaches this fully in its lesson on chaplaincy and spiritual care, and that teaching applies directly here: the soldier's part is to render the honours with dignity and support the chaplain's work, not to carry the family's grief himself.

What the soldier can offer is real and within his reach, the same plain human care the chaplaincy lesson sets out. It is presence: a steady, calm, respectful presence that does not flee from grief or hurry it along. It is the small dignity of doing his own part perfectly, because to a family the steadiness of the bearer party is the message. And it is restraint: the soldier does not preach, does not explain the death, does not offer the well-meant phrases that make a loss smaller than it is, and does not promise answers he cannot give. If a grieving family member speaks to him, he answers honestly and gently, and where the need runs deeper than he can carry, he ensures the chaplain reaches them. The Caring for Those in Need course names this the ministry of presence and the discipline of referral. Respect for the dead and care for the bereaved are two faces of one duty, and the soldier owes both.

Half-masting and the order of the Royal Court

The lowering of the National Flag to half-mast is the Principality's most public sign of mourning, and its form is exact. The flag is first hoisted fully to the peak, and only then lowered to the half-mast position; to strike it at the end of the day or return it to full height, it is first raised again to the peak before being lowered or struck. The flag is never raised directly to half-mast. The form matters because half-masting is itself a salute, and the flag is brought to the peak to render that salute before it is lowered in grief.

The half-mast position is a matter of judgement and custom, not a flag flown limply low. It is lowered so that it stands clearly below the peak, by convention about the depth of the flag itself, leaving room above for what is sometimes called the invisible flag of mourning, so that any observer sees at once that the flag is deliberately lowered and not merely fouled or slipped. A flag half-masted carelessly, hanging just under the peak or sagging near the ground, reads as an accident and shames the occasion; half-masted correctly, it is unmistakable, and speaks the Principality's grief at a glance.

The authority matters as much as the form. The order to half-mast, for the death of the Sovereign or a member of the Princely House, for national mourning, or for the death of a serving member, comes from the Royal Court, and is not a matter of local discretion. An establishment does not lower its flag on its own judgement, however genuine its grief; it lowers the flag when the Crown directs, so that the Principality mourns as one and on proper authority, and raises it again to the peak when the Crown directs that mourning is ended. This is the disciplined restraint of an institution that does not improvise its honours but renders them on order, correctly and together.

   HALF-MASTING THE NATIONAL FLAG (on the order of the Royal Court)

   TO LOWER:   hoist FULLY TO THE PEAK first  ->  then lower to
               HALF-MAST (about a flag's depth below the peak)

   TO RAISE /  raise BACK TO THE PEAK first    ->  then break out fully,
   STRIKE:     or lower / strike from the peak

   NEVER:      raise the flag DIRECTLY to half-mast
   WHY:        the hoist to the peak is itself the salute, rendered
               before the flag is lowered in grief

Respect, owed even to the dead

Beneath every one of these forms lies one of the Army's six Core Values: Respect for Others, which the Army holds to be more than a legal obligation and which extends, in plain terms, to the wounded, to prisoners, to the civil population, and to the dead. The honours of a military funeral are that value made visible. The slow march, the steady bearer party, the National Flag laid with care, the volleys, the Last Post and the Rouse, all of it says that a soldier's life and service are honoured to the end, and that the Army does not forget its own. Respect owed to the dead asks nothing in return, and that is precisely why it measures the character of those who render it.

This is why acts of remembrance take the forms they do. When the Army commemorates its fallen, whether at a memorial, an anniversary, or a day of remembrance, it keeps the same solemn elements: the silence, in which a body of disciplined soldiers stands wholly still in shared respect; the Last Post sounded into that silence and the Rouse to end it; and the laying of wreaths as a tangible act of honour and grief. The sequence of remembrance is, in miniature, the sequence of the funeral: the Last Post sounds the farewell, the silence holds the grief, the Rouse recalls the living. For a young Army the keeping of remembrance is a particular duty, because an army earns the right to be trusted partly by how faithfully it honours those who served before. The RKA keeps these forms with care and honesty, inventing no past it has not lived and claiming no battle honours it has not won. To stand the silence well and render the honours exactly is to show that the discipline of the square has become something deeper: a settled respect that does the Army, and the Crown it serves, real credit.

In Practice: The Bearer Who Counted the Steps

A young soldier is detailed to the bearer party for the funeral of a comrade who died in service, and in the days before it he is more anxious than he has ever been on any duty, afraid of stumbling, of letting the weight show, of failing the family in front of everyone. His sergeant tells him the truth of it. The point of the bearer party is not that it looks impressive; it is that the family sees their soldier carried steadily, with care, by people who plainly count it an honour, and the steadiness itself is the message. So the soldier drills the slow steps until they need no thought, the party rehearsing with a weighted coffin until the lift and lower are smooth and silent and every step is matched. On the day he carries his end of the coffin without a falter, eyes level, the weight hidden, every step matched to the soldier beside him through the slow march. The National Flag lies over the coffin, correctly oriented; at the committal the party lifts it clear and folds it with care, and it is later presented to the dead soldier's mother. The firing party renders its three volleys as one; the bugler sounds the Last Post into the silence, the parade stands wholly still, and then the Rouse lifts them from it. There is no "Taps", for that is not the Army's call; the Commonwealth calls are kept. The Colour, draped in mourning, is carried but not dipped, for it is dipped only to the Sovereign. Throughout, a chaplain is at the family's side, and when the dead soldier's mother weeps the young soldier does not flinch or look away; he holds his bearing and his place, and afterward, when she thanks the bearers, he says only that it was an honour, and means it. Nothing he does is dramatic, and that is the whole of it: he has given a comrade, and a grieving family, the steady, dignified honour the Army owes its dead, and the discipline of the square has become, in him, an act of respect.

Check Your Understanding

What is a guard of honour, on what occasions is it found, and why is it held to the very highest standard of drill? Set out the conduct of a guard receiving a dignitary step by step, from forming up to march-off, and say at which points the salute is rendered.
Describe the order of a military funeral from the procession to the march-off, naming the parts in sequence, and explain the part played by the National Flag, the firing party's volleys, the Last Post, the silence, and the Rouse. Why is the Rouse, and not the United States "Taps", the call the Army sounds?
To whom is a Colour dipped, and what does this mean for a guard of honour receiving a distinguished guest and for a military funeral? Explain the correct form and authority for half-masting the National Flag, and describe the soldier's part, and the chaplain's, in caring for the bereaved at a funeral.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): This lesson argues that the honours rendered to the dead express the Army's value of respect, a respect that asks nothing in return and that extends even to those who can no longer know it is given. Think about why an army holds such honours so exactly, why the slow march is rehearsed until it needs no thought, and why a soldier's bearing at a funeral or an act of remembrance matters as much as bearing on any other parade. What does it say about a soldier, and about the Army, that the last honours are rendered with the greatest care of all, and that the care for the grieving family is held to be as much a duty as the precision of the drill?

Summary

A guard of honour receives and honours the Sovereign, the Princely House, visiting heads of state, and other dignitaries; it is a picked, armed body, paraded with the Colour and a band where available, and held to the very highest standard of drill and turnout.
The guard's conduct runs in sequence: form up and prepare, come to attention on the warning, render the salute on arrival (royal or general, the Colour lowered only to the Sovereign), stand the inspection at close quarters, maintain the compliments throughout and salute again on departure, then march off with bearing held to the end.
The soldier's part in state occasions extends well beyond the guard to escorts, the lining of routes, and dignified presence; the bearing demanded is the same whether a soldier is at the centre of the occasion or a fixed point at its edge, and the long stand is itself a drill.
A military funeral renders the last honours in slow time and in a settled order, rehearsed beforehand: the bearer party carries the coffin in the slow march, the National Flag draping it; the flag is folded before burial and presented to the next of kin; the firing party fires three volleys; the Last Post sounds, a silence is kept, and the Rouse follows; flags are at half-mast on the order of the Royal Court.
The funeral soundings are the Last Post and the Rouse (or Reveille), the Commonwealth calls the Army keeps; they are never the United States "Taps". The coffin is draped with the national flag or ensign, removed and folded before burial, and presented to the next of kin.
Colours are dipped only to the Sovereign, never to a distinguished guest and never at a funeral; in mourning a Colour may be draped or cased but is not dipped, and flags are never dipped at all. The National Flag is hoisted to the peak before being lowered to half-mast, never raised directly to it, and the order to half-mast comes from the Royal Court.
The honours mean nothing without the human care beneath them: the soldier renders dignity and supports the chaplain, who carries the rites and the family's grief, while the bereaved's deeper needs are referred onward; the Caring for Those in Need course teaches this care fully in its lesson on chaplaincy and spiritual care.
The honours of the dead, and the silence, Last Post, Rouse, and wreaths of acts of remembrance, express the Army's value of Respect for Others, owed even to the dead; the young RKA keeps these Commonwealth forms with care and honesty, inventing no past and claiming no battle honours it has not won.

Guards of Honour and Military Funerals