When AA Milne wrote
They’re changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace;
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the Guard:
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,” says Alice
could he have been thinking of this man, left behind to clean up after the others have marched off to a meal and a rest?
It’s on every tourist’s list of Must-See, Must-Do for London: The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It’s a display of ritualized military precision as the soldiers of the regiments assigned to guard the Queen arrive, and take over duties from the previous day’s guards, who then march off to barracks, with their bands playing.
But honestly, when you saw the spectacle below, did you ever wonder who cleans up after them?
Lower photo: Wikimedia / Adrian Pingstone
