THE colours of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers will join their predecessors from down through the centuries at a special ceremony to be staged at Bury Church tomorrow.

The Colours, presented to the Battalion in 1969, are officially changed very 25 years.

During their long military history the Fusiliers, who have a long association with Bury and its neighbouring towns, have fought on battlefields around the world.

In the First World War the regiment won no less than six VCs "before breakfast" during the savage fighting of the Gallipoli landings.

The Colours from that conflict, like others through the centuries, have been brought to Bury where the Rector, Canon Reg Smith, is still honorary chaplain of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

Major John Hallam, officer in charge of the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in the town, said: "On Sunday we will have a Colour Party accompanied by a Colour Guard of around 48 who will be escorted by a regular armed band, the Territorials, Cadets and Old Comrades who will be parading through the centre of Bury to the Parish Church."

Sunday's service begins with the parade, which leaves the Drill Hall at 10.45am.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.