A happy Regiment, well set in our base in Leuchars, embracing our attached arms as our own, connected with our ERE network, integrated with the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry, confident in our Light Cavalry role, clear in our purpose at home and overseas, pushing boundaries in our achievements, forging our future with pride, and investing in our people at every turn. We are Scotland’s Cavalry.
A thoughtfully conceived combination of the Army’s Values and Standards, Maj Gen Patrick Marriot’s widely-adopted guiding principles – All of one company; Do as you ought, not as you want; Think to the finish, the demands of our role as Light Cavalry and the Regiment’s own ethos, a baton which reflects the best of each generation as it passes to the next. Live it everyday, on and off duty.
We are who we are – everyone in equal part. Diversity is a given, and we must respect people’s diverse characteristics foremost on the moral count, and secondarily for the value of broadened perspective. Inclusion is about behaviour and language – deliberate prejudice is unforgiveable, but much prejudice is unintentional, and we must have the moral courage to call out and recognise our failings. However far we think we have come, we still need to improve.
As a Regiment we are composed of teams within teams, between which there must be a healthy combination of friendly rivalry, mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. Our system is interdependent and is greater than the sum of its parts when they are strongly connected and operate in unison. Time taken to build relationships throughout our team of teams will pay dividends.
The pursuit of excellence is central to the Army’s culture of professional pride, over time making our Regiment what it is today, from horse to Main Battle Tank to Light Cavalry. In our time we must master our basics (in accordance with the Battlecraft Syllabus) and build ‘muscle memory’, remain adaptable, bring the full force of imagination to bear, and be ruthlessly determined to succeed.
As Light Cavalry, to maintain our high-performance edge as reconnaissance soldiers we must be physically robust and mentally resilient. We must be ready to rise to the challenge of any circumstance, capable of playing our part and trusted to have each other’s back.
The empowerment initiative has successfully brought focus on junior leadership – we must lock this into our working culture. In order to maximise our potential as individuals and collectively, empowerment must run through the veins of the Regiment. Vital to this are trust and confidence to make decisions and deliver outputs to which we are empowered, in line with higher intent. Every failure (of good intention) must form a step on the stairway to success. Commanders at all levels are responsible for setting these conditions.
Be sure to seize the day.
In everything we do it is tempting to fixate on final objectives, or ‘destinations’ – it is important to reach them, but as lived experiences they are momentary. The more profound experiences of people are ‘journeys’, through which there are opportunities for challenge, development, empowerment, risk-taking, failure, learning, success, reward, celebration, bonding, shared experiences and much more. The journey is at least as important as the destination, often much more so – we must invest in it accordingly, for each and every one of our people.
Almighty God, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ, gave us a perfect pattern of service, Give us grace that we, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, may be second to none in following His example, swifter than eagles to overtake His enemies, and serve Thee in Thine everlasting Kingdom: Through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
