Diamond Jubilee Armed Forces Parade and Muster

The Diamond Jubilee Armed Forces Parade and Muster was a military parade held at Windsor Castle and Home Park in Windsor, Berkshire, England, organised as part of the Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Performed as a tribute to the Queen on behalf of all three branches of the British Armed Forces, it featured a review of members of all three services by the monarch (known as a muster), a military parade through the town, and flypasts by current and historic military aircraft.

The event followed the long-standing tradition of having an armed forces tribute to the monarch during a jubilee year, although this event was the first time all three services, the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force, had visited Elizabeth II for such an event at the same time.

According to military historian Peter Craddick-Adams, a muster is an opportunity to show the monarch what they do and what they look like at a point in history, dating back to reviews of the preparedness of local militia in Tudor times. He ascribed an extra significance to this event as a thank you from the monarch to the military for their recent combat missions, given the actions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya pre-dated the previous jubilee, the Golden Jubilee of 2002.

In charge of the event was Air Vice-Marshal David Murray. Planning for it began 18 months beforehand, after the Queen accepted the request for a muster to brought to her for the first time. With the venue chosen, 2,500 servicemen and women were selected to take part in the parade, including personnel who had recently served in the NATO operation in Afghanistan and onboard HMS Liverpool during the Libyan Civil War.

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