A PARADE of 200 soldiers will march through Worcester city centre next month in support of Armed Forces Day.

Local regiment the Queen’s Royal Hussars are set to march on Saturday, June 27, exercising the right conferred on them last year when they were awarded the Freedom of the City.

The event will also mark national Armed Forces Day and soldiers will march through the city centre with swords drawn, bayonets fixed, drums beating and standards flying.

The parade will be followed by an afternoon of family activities at Worcester Racecourse, giving people of all ages the chance to get their hands on genuine military hardware and meet the soldiers face to face.

The Mayor of Worcester, councillor Roger Knight, said: “This Freedom parade will be a tremendous day for Worcester and I would urge all the residents of our proud city to come along and support the very brave men and women of the Queen’s Royal Hussars.”

The parade starts at 11am and the route will be announced nearer the time. The afternoon activities at the Racecourse in Pitchcroft will run from 12.30pm to 4pm.

Lieutenant Colonel AJH Porter, commanding officer of the Queen’s Royal Hussars, said: “It’s an enormous privilege for the Regiment to be marching in Worcester, a city with which we have a long and close relationship. We place huge value on our links to the city and are delighted to be able to meet the community after the parade.”

The Queen's Royal Hussars (QRH) was formed in Fallingbostel, Germany, on September, 1 1993 from the amalgamation of The Queen's Own Hussars and The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars.

It is an armoured regiment equipped with tanks and a history stretching back to the 17th century.

In 2011 the Regiment was deployed to Afghanistan on Operation Herrick where it had one squadron employed in an infantry role, one squadron mounted in Warthog vehicles, and one squadron working with the Afghan security forces.

In 2013 the Regiment, having fully recovered from its Afghanistan tour, trained on its tanks on the training areas in Germany and Canada.

In June 2014, the Regiment deployed C Squadron to Operation Herrick 20 in Afghanistan, which involved crewing vehicles and operating with dismounted infantry to disrupt insurgents in Helmand during the drawdown of British troops from Camp Bastion. They were one of the last British combat units on the ground in Helmand.