St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

Since the First World War, many Army colours, guidons , and symbolic flags, have been laid-up or placed in St John’s Cathedral and some still hang there. One Army unit which for many years has laid-up its colours in St John’s is the 9th Infantry Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment (RQR). The Battalion is Brisbane’s oldest light infantry unit, tracing its history back to 1867, and its Ceremonial Chief is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Over the course of its history, the Battalion has served Australia in a number of conflicts including the Boer War, and both World Wars, while more recently it has been involved in peacekeeping operations and exercises around the Pacific region. The most recent colours of the Battalion laid-up in the Cathedral were its former colours issued in 1967. They were replaced by new colours issued in 2014. The former colours (1967) comprise two banners: the ‘Queen’s Colours’ and the ‘Regimental Colours.’ They were laid-up in St John’s on 8 August 2015 in a ceremony rather resembling a funeral. During the service the colours were formally received into the Cathedral by the Governor of Queensland, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, and the Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt. The colours are made from the finest silk, inlaid with gold, and bear the names or ‘battle honours’ of the Battalion’s significant engagements back to the Boer War in 1899 and the First World War, including the Gallipoli campaign. Prior to the Laying-up Ceremony, the Commanding Officer of the Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Luke Hughes, declared to The Courier Mail that “in terms of human life sacrificed, you’re looking at many thousands of lives behind these battle honours…and that’s what we really venerate.” Soldiers in the past carried their colours into battle to act as a rallying point.

The 9th Battalion Royal Queensland Regiment (RQR) parades its former colours outside St John’s Cathedral in 2015 prior to their laying-up in the Cathedral.

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