Soldiers of the Queen’s Guard – those stiff, marching fellows with the tall, bearskin hats – have to put up with a lot of embarrassing tourist behaviour: close-up photos, mocking comments, parody walks. But it seems they draw the line at being touched.
The dramatic moment when one guard’s patience snapped after a tourist tapped his shoulder was caught on camera and posted on YouTube this week.
In the video, which was filmed at Windsor castle, the soldier, clad in trademark red tunic and black bearskin hat, is teased by a man who mimics marching alongside.
As the tourist strides alongside the serviceman, friends are heard giggling off camera on the 20-second video, saying “his gun is jammed”.
The tourist then rests his hand on the soldier’s shoulder, but leaps out of camera shot when the soldier suddenly points his gun – complete with a rather sharp-looking bayonet point – directly at the man, and barks: “Step back from the Queen’s Guard!”
The solider, who then brings his weapon back into position, carries on with his march business as usual in the final moments of the video footage, which was uploaded on Monday under the title “Why you don’t harass the Queen’s Guard.” It has been viewed more than 30,000 times.
An army spokesman told the Evening Standard the soldier was “well within his rights” to ask a member of the public to move away and would not be facing any disciplinary action over the incident, the footage of which he believed was more than six months old.
“It is disappointing that a member of the public has shown such disrespect to a member of the Queen’s Guard. The Queen’s Guard is under orders to protect Her Majesty, the palace and his post,” he said.
“Due to the current heightened security threat and increased incidents of members of the public trying to intervene with the guard, we have put barriers between the guard and the public so no such incidents could take place now.”
