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Queen's Guard mercilessly march into innocent bystander

Queen's Guard mercilessly march into innocent bystander

Last weekend the Queen celebrated her official birthday with the traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, and everyone seemed to have a nice time.

Apart from this man, who may or may not be called Derek.

'Derek' found himself in the way of a troop of marching Queen's Guard soldiers, bearskin hats and all, in what seems to be Hyde Park on Saturday.

In a video that has been watched almost 1.5million times, a female voice can be heard saying "guards coming down, Derek, mind, mind" but the man doesn't move, and the soldiers barge into him, only shouting "make way" after the collision.

An off-camera voice later says "stupid man", which is the same name as the video, and people have been glorifying in the man's moment of misfortune.

But we can sympathise with the man, who thought he lived in/was visiting a constitutional monarchy where you can expect to relax quietly in a park without being steamrollered by the ruler's army.

An Army source told i100.co.uk that although it's not clear from the footage, police should have cleared the way beforehand, and the Queen's Guard should have shouted a warning well before.

Marching troops are "not going to stop for someone in the way", they added, as 'Derek' was dubbed a "bit slow off the mark".


Are you Team Bystander or Team Violence Inherent in the System? Let us know in the comments.

Update: An Army spokesperson later told us:

"We can confirm we are aware of an incident involving a Guardsman and a member of the public which took place on Saturday following the Queen’s Birthday Parade as soldiers from 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards were returning to Barracks.

"Every precaution is taken to ensure that members of the public do not impede soldiers on ceremonial duty and the police where present, will clear the route for them. Should individuals be in the way, a verbal warning will be made by the Senior Non Commissioned Officer present. However it will be appreciated that soldiers marching have little room for manoeuvre. On this occasion the individual did not respond to the verbal warning until the last minute and a small amount of contact with the guardsman could not be avoided. This is regretted and not something which happens regularly. Other than some embarrassment, there was no injury to either the tourist or the guardsman on this occasion."

Update two: The man has been identified!

Gerry Weatherhead told the Evening Standard: "I was just shoved forward and carried on going until I pushed my way to one side. It was a little bit embarrassing, but nobody was hurt. It won’t happen twice."

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