by Amit Roy
IT IS a matter of pride for all Asians that a 22-year-old from Leicester, Charanpreet Singh Lall of the 1st Battalion the Coldstream Guards, paraded alongside his fellow soldiers wearing bearskin hats but in a black turban in last Saturday’s (9) Trooping the Colour.
He expressed the hope that people “will look at it as a new change in history. I hope that more people like me, not just Sikhs but from other religions and backgrounds, will be encouraged to join the army”.
Actually, Sikhs wearing the turban have been part of the British armed forces for over a century. Referring no doubt to Lieutenant Hardit Singh Malik, a letter in The Times from JM Carder, from Anstruther, Fifle, said: “I would remind the Guards that the RAF had turban-wearing fighter pilots in 1940 in the Battle of Britain.”





Peter Magyar stands with local Tisza party candidates after he spoke to voters at his final election campaign rally before Hungarian parliamentary elections on April 11 in Debrecen, Hungary. Getty Images




