Cocktail Party at the Officers Mess followed by the ceremony of Beating Retreat at Kineton Barracks

We were invited to their annual cocktail party and I was asked to take the salute at the Beating Retreat on the Parade ground.  There was a fantastic firework display at the end of the evening.

Beating Retreat is a ceremony which belongs essentially to the Army and Royal Marines.  In medieval times it was called “Beating Tattoo”, a deviation from the old Dutch word “Taptoe”.  Adopted by the military, it was assigned to tavern keepers to close taps and serve not more drinks to soldiers. 

The earliest recorded reference to “Beating Retreat” appears in a military   order of the army of James II which reads, “Ye Retrette to Beatte att nine at night…” and in 1745 the Duke of Cumberland ordered “Any soldier found with his arm out of his quarter after Retreat suffer death”.

Captain George Smith, Inspector of The Royal Miliary Academy Woolwich in 1799, provided further details in a “Universal Military Dictionary”.

“Retreat is also a beat of the drum a the firing of the evening gun, at which the drum-major, with all the drums of the battalion except such as are on duty,   beats from the camp-colours on the right to those on the left, on the parade of   encampment; the drums of all the guards beat also; the trumpets at the same time sounding at the head of their respective troops.  This is to warn the soldiers to forbear firing and the sentinels to challenge “till the break of the day that reveille is beat”.  The retreat likewise called setting the watch”.

After the voice, drums are one of the oldest means of communication.  They have been used to convey practically every military order.  They “Beat to Quarters” for action in ships of war, rally soldiers on the battlefield and play  muffled drums at funeral parades.  Drums are laid to form a field alter for  religious celebration and, along with colours, are blessed by the Church. 

Soldiers discharged with ignominy are “drummed out” of the Regiment.

Today, “Beating Retreat” is a ceremonial parade normally preceded by a   marching display.