In the flurry of activities that followed the death of Queen Elizabeth II of England, some weird, some comical, some traditional, while some left a lot of people astounded and a lot of questions asked.
One of these was a regiment of red coated soldiers being let in a march past by a white goat. Is the goat a sacrifice to the gods of Endland or is it some superstitous symbolic animal present of the ongoing royal activiies;
Whatever is the answer, the point remains that if it is another people, partcularly of African origin that is doing this, the media both main stream and virtual will not stop buzzing. The British will immediately make a documentary if not a movie of it. Of course giving it every kind of atrocious and ridiculous and demeaning interpretations , all to the glee and entertainment of their fun sterved people;
That goat is called Lance Corporal Shenkin, he is the Regimental Mascot of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh.
He succeeded Corporal William ‘Billy’ Windsor who was famously demoted to Lance Corporal in 2006, because, when leading a parade in front of the Queen he marched out of line and tried to head-butt the battalion drummers.
His demotion to the rank of Lance Corporal meant that other soldiers were no longer expected to salute him as a sign of respect.
Luckily, Billy eventually regained his old rank and retired with full honours to Whipsnade Zoo in 2009. Soldiers from the battalion lined the route from his pen to the trailer as he left their camp for the last time. Billy retired as a Corporal.
The practice of adopting mascots is very old. The Royal Welsh, and their predecessor units, have adopted goats as mascots since the 1770s.
This dates back to an incident at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, during the American War of Independence. A wild goat is thought to have strayed onto the battlefield and led the Royal Welsh Fusiliers’ colour party from the field.
A goat has served with the regiment ever since.
In 1844 Queen Victoria presented the regiment with a Kashmir goat from her royal herd.
Subsequently, the Royal Welsh have obtained all their goat mascots as a gift from the monarch.
Technically, this means they’re not really mascots at all, but ranking members of the regiment.
Courtesy Wale Remys Anifowoshe
