Welcome to the RoyalTournament.org website. The site is part of a project to keep alive the traditions of the Royal Tournament which was the first, oldest and biggest Military Tattoo in the World until its demise in 1999.

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Interest in the Royal Tournament has recently been revived, on 19th May 2008 the Ministry of Defence published the Report of Inquiry into: National Recognition of our Armed Forces. The report produced by Quentin Davies MP, Bill Clark OBE and Air Commodore Martin Sharp OBE MA recognised that "the Royal Tournament provided a very special opportunity for promoting the Armed Forces to the general public".

• Click here to view the MOD Article
• Click here to view the full report

With this in mind, we have re-launched this website with two main aims:

1. To provide information on the Royal Tournament and keep the traditions alive
2. To encourage people to show their support for the Royal Tournament by joining our mailing list*

*The mailing list will be used for the purposes of keeping people informed of progress on the project. Information will not be given to any third parties. We will publish the number of people that have signed up to show their support.

What was the Royal Tournament

For anyone who was not lucky enough to witness the Royal Tournament in person or didn’t have the opportunity to see the television coverage, it’s difficult to imagine the scale of the Tournament. The Tournament began as a series of skill at arms competitions however; it quickly evolved to include military bands and a variety of acts.

Staged in London each summer, the Tournament was different each year. In the latter years, each Tournament was given a theme as each of the three armed services took it in turn to take the lead. The opening and finale of each show would often include huge numbers of musicians and performers.

1988 Royal Tournament - Opening

Two elements of the Tournament earned a place in the programme each year. These were the Royal Navy Field Gun Competition which was a part of the Tournament from 1907 and the Musical Drive by the Royal Artillery.

Royal Navy Field Gun Competition 1993

The First Musical Drive was performed at the 1896 Royal Tournament. The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery was formed in 1947 on the instruction of King George VI, the troop performed at each Royal Tournament until 1999.

1994 Royal Tournament - Kings Troop RHA

For more information on the history of the Royal Tournament, please click here. To show your support, please click here and join our mailing list.