The Royal Regiment of Artillery is to provide this year’s Tynwald Day Guard of Honour. The Royal Artillery Band will provide the music for the Ceremony on the morning of Tynwald Day and will perform a Sunset Ceremony in St John’s the same evening.

2016 marks the regiment’s 300th anniversary, celebration of which has been marked by a global tour of the Captain-General’s Baton, which reached the Isle of Man on Monday May 9. Honorary Colonel Charles Wilson, who was instrumental in coordinating the tour of the baton around the Island, said: ‘It is more than appropriate that this year we welcome the Royal Regiment of Artillery to the Tynwald Day ceremony. The Regiment is 300 years old this year and is celebrating the anniversary with events worldwide which fit into a programme named Ubique 300.

‘Ubique means “everywhere”. The regiment does not carry standards or colours. Its guns are its focal point and in all campaigns the guns are everywhere. The regiment has the strongest of connections with the Island through 15 Light Air Defence Regiment - The Manx Regiment - which fought from North Africa to Italy, through D-Day and on into Germany in the Second World War. That connection continues today through our Army cadets who proudly wear The Gunners badge as do a number from our own reserves unit who are also gunners.

’This year one of the principal Tynwald Day guests is General Sir Timothy Granville Chapman GBE, KCB, vice-chief of the Defence Staff and currently The Master Gunner of St James's Park, who will be accompanied by Colonel Richard Collinge OBE, ADC, the Regimental Colonel RA.

‘The Guard of Honour will be provided by 12 Regiment RA which, in 2010, accepted the Honorary Freedom of the Borough of Douglas on behalf of the British Army. The Island has a very strong Royal Artillery Association which cares for veterans and families, and its general secretary, Lt Col Ian Vere Nicholl MBE, will also be attending Tynwald Day.’