Minden Day Through Time
On 1 August 1759 British and Hanoverian forces defeated the French cavalry at the Battle of Minden. It was one of the greatest allied victories of the Seven Years War. Among the British forces at this battle were the 51st Regiment. This regiment later became the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, known as the KOYLI.
At the battle, British soldiers were said to have picked roses and wore them in their hats. This became a tradition for regiments who fought in the battle, with soldiers wearing roses or laurels on Minden Day, the anniversary of the battle. Minden Day celebrations for the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry often involved sporting events, meals and parades. And as the regiment travelled the world, so did these traditions.
The war diaries for the First World War show that Minden Day was celebrated on the Western Front. On August 1915 men of the 1st Battalion were in the trenches and they were given roses that had been sent from England.
Men of the 2nd Battalion were in camp in Belgium in 1918 and marked the day with a series of sporting events with an extra special treat of a free pint of beer with their dinner!
In 1925 the 1st Battalion were based at Dover Castle. Due to space restrictions they could not have their usual large scale parade for Minden Day, but instead had a smaller parade with white roses and saluted the regimental colour. A special battalion order was issued by Lieutenant Colonel Thorp which ended with ‘the regiment has not forgotten that it shared in the glory of Minden’.
In 1945 the 2/4th Battalion celebrated Minden Day in Austria. The activity programme for the day included a football match, a horse show, a cooking competition, a dog show, an obstacle race and musical chairs.
The 2nd Battalion were based in Germany in August 1945. So they took the opportunity to have a special Minden Day celebration of their own. They travelled to Minden and celebrated in the historic town itself. They paraded in Minden at noon before returning to their base for a dance, and again, free beer!
1955 was an important year for the King’s Own Yorkshire light Infantry. It was the 200th anniversary of the creation of the regiment and as such Minden Day that year was a special occasion. Roger Preston was serving with the KOYLI during this time and remembers Minden Day…
At that time I was newly commissioned and waiting to be sent to the 1st Battalion in Kenya. And this Minden Day in 1955 was very special and celebrated at the depot, which in those days was in Strensall in York. Our Colonel-in-Chief, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, spent the day with us. She inspected the guard of recruits outside York Minster, and then attended a service in the Minster, attended by 900 people. We all returned to Strensall for lunch, after which Her Majesty visited various marquees on the cricket ground with differing activities, meeting soldiers and their families. The day ended with an all ranks Minden Day ball… Each year was different depending if the battalion was deployed on operations or not.
– Roger Preston remembers Minden Day, 2020
Although the KOYLI ceased to exist in 1968 and the army has been through lots of reorganisation since then, Minden Day is still celebrated by many regiments with the wearing of roses. In 2018 the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry memorial statue was unveiled in Elmfield Park, Doncaster, on Minden Day, marking 50 years since the regiment ceased to exist. And now, as well as being Minden Day, the 1 August is Yorkshire Day.
If you have any memories of celebrating Minden Day we would be interested in hearing them! Please email [email protected]
All images of objects and photographs from the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Collection are shared under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), credit to Heritage Doncaster.