The King’s Birthday Parade ran on Horse Guards Parade on 14 June 2025, and the Coldstream Guards trooped their Colour in the regiment’s 375th anniversary year.
The King’s Birthday Parade, formed by the Household Division, marked the Sovereign’s official birthday on Horse Guards Parade in Westminster on Saturday 14 June 2025. The Coldstream Guards trooped their Colour in the regiment’s 375th anniversary year.
The ceremony takes its name from carrying a regiment’s Colour through the ranks, so soldiers would know it on the battlefield. It is believed to date from the reign of Charles II.
In 1748 it was fixed as the Sovereign’s birthday parade, and it became annual when George III took the throne in 1760. The five regiments of Foot Guards take turns to troop their Colour.
In 2025 the Colour was the King’s Colour of the 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Guards. The King and Queen rode from Buckingham Palace along The Mall in the Ascot Landau carriage. The Princess of Wales took part after missing the parade in 2024.
The flypast brought 29 aircraft over the Palace, led by four Chinook helicopters. The Red Arrows closed it, flying on environmentally friendly aviation fuel for the first time.
The parade came two days after the Air India Flight 171 crash, and the King wore a black armband in remembrance of those who died.