Queen's Colour ceremony 2024

The third Queen’s Colour, the last to be presented to the RNZAF by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, arrived at the Air Force Museum Te Whakairinga Mutu on 20 July 2024 to rest for all time as a reminder of duty well done.
The original Queen’s Colour was first presented to the RNZAF by Her Majesty in December 1953, and is regarded as the RNZAF’s most precious treasure.
“The assets of an air force, being primarily airmen and machines, are constantly changing,’’ wrote RNZAF biographer Geoffrey Bentley in 1969.
“The permanent possessions are few. The most treasured of these is the Queen’s Colour and the fact Her Majesty presented it in person adds another dimension to its value.
“It is a beautiful thing. While its intrinsic value can be assessed and will be known to a few, its value as a symbol is beyond price.’’
That first Colour from 1953 was retired and laid up in 1976 at the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul. The second Colour is laid up at the Chapel of St Mark at RNZAF Base Woodbourne.
And the third now resides with the Air Force Museum for lodging, safe-keeping and display.
The bearer party included Squadron Leader Dan Garnett, the last bearer to carry this Colour on parade, Warrant Officer Chris Wilson, previous Queen’s Colour Warrant Officer, and Warrant Officer Phil Wansbrough, a previous Queen’s Colour Escort.
After the ceremony, the colour party offered a traditional toast to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth after a verse from poet and soldier Sir Edward Hamley about the significance of the Colours was read out. The verse goes:
“A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole, it doesn’t look likely to stir a man’s soul; ‘Tis the deeds that were done ‘neath the moth-eaten rag; ‘When that pole was a staff and the rag was a flag.”