A guard of honour (Commonwealth English), honor guard (American English) or ceremonial guard, is a group of people, typically drawn from the military, appointed to perform ceremonial duties – for example, to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, especially funerals. In military weddings, especially those of commissioned officers, a guard, composed usually of service members of the same branch, form the sabre arch. In principle, any military unit could act as a guard of honour. In some countries, certain units are specially assigned to undertake guard of honour postings or other public duties. Republican guards, royal guards and foot guards frequently have ceremonial duties assigned to them.
Guards of honour also serve in the civilian world for fallen police officers, firefighters, and other civil servants and events. Military style salutes and the presentation of colors are given at funerals for firefighters, law enforcement personnel and other civil servants. Certain religious bodies, especially churches of the Anglican Communion and the Methodist movement, have the tradition of an honour guard at the funeral of an ordained elder, in which all other ordained elders present "guard the line" between the door of the church and the grave, or hearse if the deceased is to be buried elsewhere or cremated.[1] Catholic chivalric orders, such as the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, provide guards of honour for deceased knights and high-ranking officers during funerals.[2][3][4] The practice of providing a guard of honour as a mark of respect also occurs in sports, especially throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.
Guards of honour have been mounted by a number of military forces, uniformed paramilitary organizations, and civilian emergency services.
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The Algerian Republican Guard is a mainly ceremonial military corps of the Algerian Army. Composed of 6,000 troops, it is very similar in its formation style to equivalent units in the French Army. The Republican Guard includes a military band and a cavalry unit, the uniform and traditions of which are based on those of the famous Berber cavalry, the Numidian cavalry, the French cavalry, and the Arab cavalry, as well as infantry.
The Egyptian Republican Guard is a division level unit in the Egyptian Army which is the seniormost unit in the Egyptian Armed Forces that has the responsibility of defending the President of Egypt, as well as major presidential and national institutions. It is a type of guard regiment that is composed of dozens upon dozens of armored brigades, mechanized brigades and divisional artillery, Being the seniormost unit in the armed forces, the Republican Guard Division is the only major military unit allowed in central Cairo besides the troops of intelligence services and Central Security Forces.
The Guard of Honour unit in Namibia is the 21 Ceremonial Guard Battalion of the Namibian Defence Force. Falling under the 21 Brigade based in Windhoek. It was part of the presidential security detail until removed from this role and put on honour guard duty.
The members of the Nigerian Presidential Guard Brigade are elite Nigerian soldiers who guard the residence of the President of the Federal Republic and his or her guests as well as performing ceremonial duties. It is similar to the United States Secret Service in that its members also provide security for visiting heads of state. The brigade performs a weekly changing of the guard ceremony outside Aso Villa and stands guard at the Presidential Villa. Aside from that, the guards brigade also mounts the guard of honour for state visits, as well as the Independence Day Military Parade in Abuja. The brigade is the senior unit in the Nigerian Army's order of battle.
The Red Guard of Senegal is a Senegalese Gendarmerie unit that is responsible for maintaining the security of the President of Senegal. It is similar to the ceremonial elements in the French Republican Guard. The unit's uniform is derived from the French colonial Spahi. The Red Guard is under the direct command of the Security Legion of the Senegalese Mobile Gendarmerie. It is composed of many units that serve ceremonial duties, with the most notable being the honour guard battalion, which an infantry unit, and the mounted squadron.
The guard of honour unit in South Africa was the State Presidents Guard (Staatspresidentseenheid) until 1990.[5] The unit has since been replaced by the National Ceremonial Guard in the South African National Defence Force. Permanent honour guards in the country had not existed prior to the Staatspresidentseenheid's founding in 1967. In compensation for a lack of ceremonial units, the Citizen Force and the Cape Town Highlanders Regiment were often deployed for ceremonial events.[6] Following the abolition of apartheid in South Africa, the guard was disestablished, leaving the defence forces without an official guard of honour until 1995, when the NCG was founded.
The Presidential Guard is an elite combat unit of the Zimbabwe National Army, serving as a Household Division-like service for the President of Zimbabwe. The unit, in their green service uniform and yellow berets, mount the guard of honour on behalf of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. Past events where the guard of honour was provided by the presidential guard includes Defence Forces Day festivities, Heroes Day, the Independence Day Parade, and the inauguration of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The flag of the Presidential Guard of Zimbabwe consists of a beige background, with three equal horizontal stripes of red, green and red, and the centre having a shield which contains a white wreath beneath a bird, over which are two brown rifles in saltire.[7] The brigade is based currently at Dzivarasekwa Barracks in Harare and is led by Brigadier Anselem Sanyatwe.
The Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers serves as a part of the Argentine Army, serving as the presidential guard and ceremonial mounted detachments. Two unmounted grenadiers are stationed in front of the Pink House as a symbol of the ceremonial and honour guard. They also provide security to the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral, where its founder's remains are buried, and at the Palace of the Argentine National Congress, as well as in the other presidential residences. Raised in 1813, it is designated as the senior regiment of cavalry in the Army.
The Brazilian armed forces and Brazilian Military Police have several units designated as guards of honour, which perform public and ceremonial duties on behalf of the Armed Forces and the military police units. The most important of them is the Brazilian president's honour guard units, all of the Brazilian Army. It is composed of the 1st Guards Cavalry Regiment (1o Regimento de Cavalaria de Guardas – RCG, in Portuguese) – "Independence Dragoons", the Presidential Guard Battalion (Batalhão da Guarda Presidencial – BGP, in Portuguese) and the Cayenne Battery. All these units fall under the Planalto Military Command.
The Brasilia Marine Group of the Brazilian Marine Corps, a component of the Brazilian Navy, provides ceremonial guards of honour as well. The Ministry of Defence maintains its own joint service honour guard.[8]
Military public duties in Ottawa, Canada's national capital, are formally the responsibility of two regiments of foot guards: the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the Governor General's Foot Guards. One of their main tasks is the provision of sentries at ceremonial and other official state functions organized by the Government of Canada.[9][10] Their tasks include mounting the guard of honour at military funerals and other events attended by visiting dignitaries. The two regiments of foot guards, together with the Governor General's Horse Guards, based in Toronto, make up Canada's Household Division.
The Canadian Army also operates a summer public duties detachment known as the Ceremonial Guard, which assumes public duties in Ottawa from late-June to late-August.[11] The Ceremonial Guard is made up of regulars or reservists of the Canadian Army, although its membership is also augmented by members regulars and reservists of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Navy.[12] Like the foot guards, the Ceremonial Guards also mount the guard of honour for military funerals, and visiting dignitaries while in season.[11][13] Members of the Ceremonial Guard wear the uniforms of the Canadian foot guards, as they have historically staffed the summer public duties detachment, before membership in the Ceremonial Guard was opened to the entire Canadian Armed Forces in the 21st century.[12] The Ceremonial Guard is considered an ad hoc detachment, as its members are drawn from various units of the armed forces, and does not constitute a permanent unit in the Canadian Forces' order of battle.
Beside the Canadian foot guards and the Ceremonial Guards, units with regularly scheduled guard mountings include the Royal 22nd Regiment, which mounts the guard from late June to Labour Day (the first Monday of September) at the Citadelle of Quebec in Quebec City, a military installation and secondary residence of the King and Governor General.[14] As the unit is based in Quebec City, it rarely mounts the guard of honour for foreign dignitaries.
Guards of honour are also formed by civilian police, and fire services, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. These civilian honour guards are typically mounted for funerals, and local ceremonies, with the honour guard units typically made up of 30 to 60 members. Some, like the York Regional Police, operate a mounted honour guard unit. Fire and rescue ceremonial units such as the Toronto Fire Services Honour Guard and the Calgary Firefighters Honour Guard are unique in that they are armed with a ceremonial axe.
The 37th Infantry Presidential Guard Battalion, composed of five companies, a historical company and one artillery battery plus a military band, a fanfare trumpet section and Corps of Drums, is the President of Colombia's honour guard service regiment under the National Army of Colombia. It is stationed at the Casa de Nariño in Bogota where the changing of the guard ceremony takes place three days per week and carries the traditions of Simon Bolivar's infantry guards company raised in the midst of the Spanish American wars of independence in 1815.[15]
The Ceremonial Unit of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces provided honours for the Communist Party of Cuba, the Government of Cuba, and the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. It is a sort of mix between Russian and German ceremonial formations, with the unit notably adopting the German-born goosestep. Its ceremonial duties are usually performed at government buildings and notable areas in Havana, with the Plaza de la Revolución (the main square in the capital) and the Palace of the Revolution (the workplace of the President of Cuba). The main purpose of the military unit is the performance of the changing of the guard every half an hour at the José Marti Mausoleum in Santiago de Cuba. Prior to Fidel Castro's 1959 Cuban Revolution, honour guards were performed by units that resembled honour guard units in the United States, such as The Old Guard.
Haitian honour guard duties are performed by the General Security Unit of the National Palace of the Haitian National Police (L'Unité de Sécurité Générale du Palais National, USGPN) which is a major specialized unit of the PNH. It has, since 1997, mainly ensured security at the Palais National and the security of the President of Haiti. The USGPN works with the Presidential Security Unit (Unité de sécurité présidentielle, USP) to protect the president, as well as intervene when a crime takes place and or assist police officers in their duties, outside of the USGPN's ceremonial ones. Funeral honours, state visits, and military parades are some of the many ceremonies that the USGPN takes in.[16]
The Jamaica Regiment is primarily responsible for public duties in the capital of Kingston on behalf of the Jamaica Defence Force. The regiment's first battalion usually mounts the guard of honour at national ceremonies, serving as a foot guard to the Governor-General of Jamaica. Members of the regiment also provide sentries at the National Heroes Park.[17]
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The Honour Guard in Mexico consists of members selected from the Mexican Navy, Mexican Army, Air Force and/or the National Guard, and report to the Secretariats of National Defence, Security and Civil Protection and the Navy, while these three government secretariats maintain currently (since the 2018 disbandment of the Estado Mayor Presidencial), through the Presidential Guards Corps of the National Guard, a dedicated joint service guards corps with a division of presidential military police and selected other formations from these select secretariats. Some of their duties include protection of the Mexican flag in Zocalo, and the raising and lowering of it, as well as providing ceremonial guards at National Palace or Campo Marte during state visits to Mexico.
There are also those selected from other organizations, such as historic societies, schools, sports centers, celebrities, etc., but these are for national holiday events within the country. Escolta de la bandera or Escolta de guerra or Escolta de honores or simply La escolta is the term in Spanish for colour guards and flag parties.
The Presidential Life Guard Dragoons Regiment is the premier ceremonial unit of the Peruvian Army having similar practices to the Cavalry Regiment, French Republican Guard. It is one of two official Household Cavalry and Dragoon Guards regiments in the army which have the affording of ceremonial protection to the President of Peru and to the Government Palace in Lima as their foremost duties.