TA's parade could be the last
Members of the Royal Military Police based in West Bromwich paraded through the town to celebrate being awarded the freedom of entry to the borough of Sandwell.
The parade may also be the last time that 116 Provost Company Volunteers exercise their right to march in the town, with bayonets fixed, flags flying and bands playing because they are due to relocate.
Accompanied by the West Midlands Regimental Band the volunteers, some of whom have served in the Balkans and Iraq, marched from their Carters Green TA base to West Bromwich Town Hall and back, before being inspected by Sandwell Mayor Councillor Sadie Smith.
They also held one minute's silence in memory of Corporal Dewi Pritchard, who was based at Carters Green, but who was killed in Iraq in 2003.
He died alongside two fellow Royal Military Police Officers when gunmen ambushed a rented civilian jeep during a routine patrol in Basra that August.
The 35-year-old soldier, of Bridgend, South Wales, was among 23 part-time soldiers from the West Bromwich base sent to Iraq that summer.
Corporal Pritchard, a machine setter by profession, was the first TA solder to die in Iraq, and left a wife and two children.
Captain Robin Kemp said that the freedom to march honour had been given by Sandwell Councillors earlier this year in honour of the company's 40-year association with the town.
"It is a fine recognition of our association with West Bromwich," he said.
The company is expected to move to Cannock's new TA centre towards the end of this year.
