Queen's Own Hussars

Major Sir Michael Parker KCVO CBE

Sir Michael Parker is a well known organiser of displays and events. He is most famous for being the mastermind behind the Royal Tournament which he ran for last 27 years of it's life, and the Edinburgh Tattoo for 3 years. The Royal Tournament was an annual event that was one of the best shows in London and drew great crowds to Olympia throughout the 20th Century. He also organised the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1977 and 2006, but is sadly not so involved in the 2012 Diamond Jubilee events. He has organised displays and events all over the world, mostly involving pyrotechnics giving rise to many referring to him as the Master-Blaster.
He served in the Queen's Own Hussars from 1961 to 1971 where he was busy organising various shows. He describes some of the more memorable events in the short regimental history published in 1985. Many of the events involved a mock up of Moscow which was burned to recreate 1812:
"I have now burnt Moscow more times than Napoleon could ever have imagined but that first time took some beating. At the end of the long lawn at Detmold, a great structure - the band playing in the bushes - 'volunteers' in full dress being blown up behind the guns - fireworks, and finally the whole thing going up in a sheet of flames. Moscow was some 20 yards in front of Colonel Pat Howard-Dobson's house and I was impressed with his coolness as the trees caught fire. Destined for higher things, I thought."
"On to Hohne and my regimental swan-song. I am not certain why we chose to recreate the Battle of Trafalgar in a cavalry mess a few hundred miles inland, but it seem like a good idea at the time. Assault boats were made up into Men-of-War, the band floated in the middle of the lake. The boats appeared, propelled by clerks in frogmen suits (I was adjutant at the time) pressing buttons to let off the broadsides. Sadly one went into the band by mistake, but did not seem to affect the sound of the music. Rather before the cue, the boats caught fire, as did the trees and a number of other things. The aluminium boats melted and sank. The band continued to play although lost in the smoke, and frogmen appeared amongst the mess kits complaining that the water was F*****G HOT! General Jackie Harman turned to Colonel Mike Pritchard and said 'I have a horrible feeling that I am the Senior Officer present.' The Court of Inquiry was Hilarious."
He refers to his subsequent career as 'lesser things', such as the Royal Tournament, Aldershot Army Display, The Silver Jubilee, The Royal Fireworks, and the 'largest Children's Party in history (180,000 screaming brats)'. He works by three basic rules: 1. If it is easy to do it's not worth doing. 2. If you know it is going to work you are probably doing something wrong. 3. Unless everybody enjoys it, don't bother.

Regimental details | Soldiers