The Golden Lions Scottish Infantry Parachute Display Team were formed in 1969 by professional soldiers in the Scottish Division wanting to promote the more ‘adventurous’ side of the Scottish Infantry, and help keep the British Army in the public eye.
The Golden Lions consist of a team of up to 12 Soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland. These soldiers must volunteer to attend a rigorous selection process followed by 12 months of training in Freefall, Accuracy and Display Co-ordination. Only the best of these will then be trained in the Canopy formations discipline, where parachutists join their canopies together in formations high above the arena. This is one of the hardest disciplines to perform. The Golden Lions are current Gold Medal Winners in the Scottish National Championships and Tri-Service Championships for Canopy Formations.
The Team is based in Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, and travel all over Scotland providing displays for event organisers and Military Shows. In recent years the Team have entertained crowds at the Inverness Tattoo, the Braemar Highland Games and more recently, the Scottish Rugby Union at Murrayfield Stadium.
With favourable weather conditions, the Team provide a repertoire which includes freefall parachutists trailing smoke for thousands of feet, reaching speeds of over 120mph before safely deploying their parachutes. One member of the Team also carries the famous Golden Lions flag, a huge 20ft x 15ft St. Andrews Cross with the Lion Rampant emblazoned on it. Other members of the Team carry video and stills cameras for air-to-air and air-to-ground footage and photography. Once the display is complete, the Team may, time permitting, move to one side and pack their parachutes.
Each display arena is required by law, to be a minimum of 100 metres by 50 metres, clear of major hazards and cordoned off to the public. Prices for a display are around £800 but vary depending on location. There is a standard non-refundable deposit of £200, with the remaining balance to be paid on completion of the display.
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“Flushed with new life, the crowd flows back again:
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Much like a waving field of golden grain,
Or a tempestuous ocean.
And thus they give the time, that Nature meant
For peaceful sleep and meditative snores,
To ceaseless din and mindless merriment
And waste of shoes and floors.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“There is no magic decoding ring that will help us read our young adolescent’s feelings. Rather, what we need to do is hold out our antennae in the hope that we’ll pick up the right signals.”
—The Lions Clubs International and the Quest Nation. The Surprising Years, III, ch.4 (1985)
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)