The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE historic West India Regiment will be temporarily resurrected on Friday as Fort Charlotte again plays host to military drills and ceremonies not seen there since 19th century.

The event will be the first in what organisers at the Antiquities, Monuments and Museum Corporation (AMMC) hope will become a tradition at the fort.

The military reenactment sequence will include drills, marches and flag raising ceremonies, culminating in a cannon firing demonstration.

The event is being organised by the AMMC, in conjunction with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force.

“This event is unique, historically accurate, educational, entertaining and has the potential to become a source of revenue generation to assist in the maintenance and upkeep of Fort Charlotte and other sites of the AMMC,” said AMMC chairman Courtney Strachan.

The event will begin at 6pm. The admission price is $5.

A thanksgiving event will also take place at the fort on Wednesday November 27 at 6pm and a Christmas special will be held on Sunday, December 29 at 6pm. The Defence Force Band will play on all three occasions.

Starting next year January, such special events are expected to become a permanent fixture at Fort Charlotte.

The West India Regiment (WIR) was an infantry unit of the British Army recruited from and usually stationed in the Caribbean colonies belonging to Britain between 1795 and 1927.

The regiment differed from similar forces in other parts of the empire, in that it formed an integral part of the regular British Army.