Guards and Parachute Division

The Guards and Parachute Division is an administrative unit of the British Army responsible for the training and administration of the regiments of Foot Guards and the Parachute Regiment. The division is responsible for providing two battalions for public duties to London District ; although the guards are most associated with ceremony, they are nevertheless operational infantry battalions, and as such perform all the various roles of infantry.

History

As part of the Future Soldier reforms of the Army announced by the government in March 2021, the infantry was to be reorganised, with the intention of bringing all infantry regiments under the administration of a division of infantry. As part of this, the Guards Division, which was the administrative organisation responsible for the regiments of foot guards, was to be expanded to also assume responsibility for the Parachute Regiment, which had previously been an independent formation. The new division, to be named as the Guards and Parachute Division, was stood up on 30 September 2022.

Current units

The division as stood up incorporates a total of ten infantry battalions - eight of these are part of the regular army, while the other two form part of the Army Reserve. In addition, there are five incremental companies which form integral parts of their parent regiments and whose primary task is public duties:

1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards
Nijmegen Company, Grenadier Guards
1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards
No. 7 Company, Coldstream Guards
1st Battalion, Scots Guards
F Company, Scots Guards
1st Battalion, Irish Guards
No. 9 Company, Irish Guards
No. 12 Company, Irish Guards
1st Battalion, Welsh Guards
1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment
1st Battalion, The Rangers
1st Battalion, London Guards
4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment

Another element of Future Soldier saw the formation of a new unit, The Rangers - as part of its formation, it was announced that each of its four battalions would be assigned to one of the divisions of infantry. This saw the 1st Battalion assigned to the Guards and Parachute Division.
One of the platoons of 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment is manned exclusively by soldiers drawn from either the foot guards or the Household Cavalry.

Bands

Each of the regiments that form part of the Guards and Parachute Division has a regimental band - these come under the control of the Royal Corps of Army Music, but form part of each unit's regimental family.