Colonel Stuart Cowen & Lieutenant Colonel Harry Scott
Lieutenant Colonel Harry Scott
What is your role in the Household Cavalry?
I am the Regimental Adjutant. I work in Headquarters Household Cavalry. The key aspects of my job are handling potential officers, ceremonial planning and standards, handling aspects of heritage such as the Museum, and Household Cavalry resources in the form of trusts and funds. Colloquially I think of my role as providing the bookends of the Household Cavalry, with all the serving and operational stuff in the middle. I am the continuity factor at the Headquarters and am available to both regiments, at Windsor and at Knightsbridge. I can tell people how we have done things before and how we usually do things, particularly for something that is only done irregularly such as the Presentation of Standards. I am particularly responsible for ceremonial planning with links to the Palace and to Headquarters Household Division. Perhaps the most important thing I do is run the recruiting of officers into the Regiments, and as such I am involved in the process that sees them to the Army Officer Selection Board, visits to the Regiments and through Sandhurst. The ultimate decisions are not taken by me, but I try and ensure that the right people are in the hat.
How does your daily routine differ to the people at Windsor and Knightsbridge?
The daily routines for me are very office related, quite unrelated to those of the two Regiments. The Regiments at Windsor, for example, might be carrying out physical activity from 7.30 am and getting themselves ready to go on exercise; for about half the year they are often out of barracks whether training on Salisbury Plain, firing their main armament at Castlemartin or training in Canada. The Mounted Regiment has a very different routine. Their daily routine is stables at 6.20am, involving mucking out, grooming, exercising the horses, feeding, more grooming and stable work. They are constantly preparing for ceremonial operations, whether the daily duty of Queen’s life Guard at the 10 or so parades a year. They will finish a bit earlier in the day than the boys at Windsor, unless they are on duty the next day or are part of ‘Last 2s’ to put the horses to bed at 6 pm. The only relief they have each year is for Regimental Training in Norfolk for a month when they can get up later and really concentrate on riding skills.
What is your typical day?
I arrive at around 9 am, and am here at Horse Guards until 7 pm depending on what we’re doing. Quite often I am shuttling up to Knightsbridge for meetings and other things. I do the office stuff although I do get involved with some of the ceremonial activity too.
What do you most enjoy about your job?
It allows me to continue my connection to the Household Cavalry, having joined the Regiment as a 20 year old Troop Leader. I have been involved in all sorts of aspects of the army, but I have particularly enjoyed regimental service. This job allows me to continue to serve the Regiments in a way that I can, now that I am old and broken!
What is your best experience that you have had in the Household Cavalry?
From an officer’s point of view it’s the times when you’re in command : I took A Squadron The Life Guards to Cyprus for 6 months which was tremendous, and certainly I had an enormous amount of fun as a Commanding Officer at Hyde Park Barracks in the late 90’s. When you really know how something should be done and you’re familiar with all the elements of it, and then you’re allowed to get on and do it for a couple of years, there’s tremendous satisfaction in that. It’s a great feeling being able to put all your skills and knowledge to use and work with a strong team, to achieve the goals that you all have. Throughout my service I have always felt that at whatever level – troop, squadron, regimental – the team has done well.
Which conflicts have you been involved with in the past?
The Household Cavalry has been involved in all the operations that have taken place over the last 50 years – Northern Ireland, Cyprus, the Falklands, The Gulf War, The Iraq War, the events in the Balkans and since of course, Afghanistan. In my regimental service we went to Cyprus, Northern Ireland and the Balkans, but I was on the Army staff duty during The Gulf War, and Iraq, and Afghanistan, so I missed out on those.
