Sail past to launch homecoming celebrations of 17 Port and Maritime regiment

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal will be guest of honour in Southampton to welcome home troops from 17 Port and Maritime Regiment.

Around 350 soldiers will be on parade in their finery in Mayflower Park as a handful of ships, with more troops on board, moves along Southampton Water at 12.45pm on October 22. The regiment will then start their homecoming parade at 1pm and will be accompanied by the band of the Royal Logistics Corps.

They will march along a route from the waterfront, up the High Street, through the Bargate and up to the front of the Civic Centre. Outside they will then form up to be inspected by the Right Worshipful Mayor of Southampton, Councillor Elizabeth Mizon, and Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal.

Medals will then be presented before the soldiers and their invited guests move on to the Guildhall for a celebratory event.

Council chiefs and representatives of key local authorities and organisations have been planning the event for several months.

Hundreds of schoolchildren will be brought into the city for the event, to wave flags and help welcome the soldiers home.

Residents are being urged to turn out and cheer on the boys as they march through the city.

It’s the second homecoming parade in a matter of months in Southampton after hundreds of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment marched through the city in July following their return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

View March Route in a larger map

The parade starts in Mayflower Park turning right into Town Quay. It then heads left into High Street, through Bargate Monument and the pedestrianised area before continuing onto Above Bar Street, turning left into Civic Centre Road and finishing in the Civic Centre car park.