Army chief takes over as honorary colonel of 'Brigade of the Guards'

New Delhi: Army chief General Dalbir Singh on Saturday took over as the honorary colonel of the Brigade of the Guards.

The presentation of the banner was done by Lt Gen Ashok Singh, Army Commander, Southern Command and Colonel of the Regiment, and Lt Gen Sanjeev Madhok, Commander of the Army Training Command.

When India attained Independence, the Army, by and large, and the infantry and armoured units in particular, continued to retain the class composition laid down much earlier. Thus regiments were either 'pure class' or 'mixed class' up to company level. Within companies, men of different classes were not mixed.

The then commander-in-chief General KM Cariappa envisaged promoting national integration by raising a regiment of all class mixed composition down to section level. So the Brigade of the Guards was formed.

Simultaneously, the regiment was to be elite, modelled essentially on the British 'Coldstream Guards' (the 2nd Foot Guards) with whom the General had served on attachment.