9th Battalion Royal Queens­land Regiment lays up old colours at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane

A SOLEMN ceremony to farewell a historic Brisbane army regiment’s “colours” venerated the sacrifices of soldiers dating back to the Boer War.

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THESE colourful swathes of embroidered silk might look like ordinary flags, but to the men and women of Gallipoli Barracks’ 9th Battalion Royal Queensland Regiment (9RQR), they are so sacred they dare not touch them with an ungloved hand.

These are the Battalion’s old “colours” which were ­officially farewelled at a solemn “laying up” ceremony not unlike a funeral at St John’s Cathedral in the city on August 8.

The old colours are worth about $100,000, made from the finest silk inlaid with gold, and were issued in 1967, 9RQR Lieutenant ­Colonel Luke Hughes said.

“The colours are like a human being’s soul and heart, and without a soul and a heart, a human being cannot live. So without colours, an infantry battalion cannot live,” Lt-Col Hughes said.

The colours bear the names of the battalion’s ­significant battles all the way back to the Boer War in 1899.

“In terms of human life sacrificed, you’re looking at many thousands of lives ­behind those battle honours on those colours, and that’s what we rally venerate with these colours,” Lt-Col ­Hughes said.

He said soldiers in the past carried their colours into battle to act as a rally point and a sign of the battle’s progress, for when the colours fell, the unit had been struck a devastating blow.

He said the colours would be hung in the cathedral not to be touched again until they disintegrated with age, a process which may take up to 100 years.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

9th Battalion Royal Queens­land Regiment had the first man ashore at Gallipoli, and fought in Europe, North Africa and Milne Bay, where it stole the first land victory against the Japanese in World War II.