Queen pays tribute to her father Major Bruce Shand’s service with Royal Lancers

When the Germans invaded on May 10, 1940, he entered Belgium as part of the British Expeditionary Force, with his troops from A Squadron.

He won a Military Cross for covering the withdrawal of a column of new trucks and guns that were under fire from four German tanks near Sint-Omer.

In January 1942, commanding half of C Squadron, he was assigned to monitor the withdrawal of the 1st/6th Rajputana Rifles amid a rapid German advance. His second Military Cross citation described him as “a cavalry leader of the first order”.

Military cross

The Queen has previously revealed that he only spoke about his experiences in the war when his grandchildren were born.

She helped persuade him to write a book, Previous Engagements, published in 1990, which was based on his letters and diary, as well as two accounts he wrote after he was wounded and taken to Germany as a prisoner of war in November 1942.

The Queen, then Duchess of Cornwall, once said it was ‘a huge burden off his mind to be able to tell people about it’.

Maj Shand’s tropical tunic, made by Saville Row tailor Huntsman & Sons, has been on public display at the Royal Lancers Museum in Derby since it was bought by the regiment at auction last year.

It was made prior to his deployment to North Africa in late 1942, when it was common for officers to purchase their own suit jackets from a recognized tailor of their choice.

The Royal Lancers are famous for their skull and crossbones badge, which represents their motto Death or Glory.

The Queen was announced as their Colonel-in-Chief last June.

She took over from Elizabeth II, who was appointed colonel-in-chief of the 16th/5th Lancers by her father on her 21st birthday, April 21, 1947.

The late monarch retained the appointment until her death through the subsequent mergers of Queen’s Royal Lancers and Royal Lancers.