Rifles regiment parades through Sunderland to exercise Freedom of the City

Sunderland's adopted regiment has taken to the city's streets.

The Rifles succeeded famous regiments including the Durham Light Infantry and the Light Infantry, and is seen as the city's infantry regiment, actively recruiting service personnel from the city and surrounding area.

The regiment was awarded the Freedom of Sunderland in 2010 and today, Sunday, November 5, exercised that freedom with a march through the city centre.

The parade included members of the 3rd and 8th Battalion The Rifles, many of whom have recently been on operational duties and cadets from Durham Army Cadet Force. It was led by the Band & Bugles of The Rifles supported by the Band & Bugles of The County Durham Army Cadet Force. A number of veterans from the Durham Light Infantry Association were also on parade.  A successor to famous regiments including the Durham Light Infantry and the Light Infantry, the Rifles are seen as the infantry regiment of Sunderland and actively recruit service personnel from the city and surrounding area.  

The Mayor of Sunderland, Coun Dorothy Trueman, took the salute and inspected the parade: "I am very honoured and privileged to be here today," she said.

"I am always so very, very proud of our armed forces. The people of Sunderland always turn out for our armed forces."

The Rifles Colonel North, Brigadier Mark Wilson MBE, said it was 'fundamentally important for us' to maintain a relationship with the city: "We have had a long relationship with the city of Sunderland, with the county of Durham, going back decades if not centuries as a regiment and as our former regiments, the Light Infantry and Durham Light Infantry," he said.

"We draw very heavily from this area in terms in terms of recruits into the Army and particularly into the Rifles, so having a parade like today, the Freedom of the City of Sunderland, exercising that for us is is very, very important to demonstrate the relationship that we have."

The largest infantry regiment in the British Army, The Rifles is an amalgamation of four regiments: the Light Infantry, the Devon and Dorset Light Infantry, the Royal Gloucester, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry and the Royal Green Jackets.

Soldiers from the Regiment's Third Battalion, based in Edinburgh, joined members of the Eighth Battalion, the Rifles' Regional Reserve Battalion with a headquarters in Bishop Auckland and a subunit in Sunderland, in today's march.