Queen Victoria's Empire reached its zenith in 1897, the year of the Diamond Jubilee of her reign. June 22nd was a day to be remembered and spoken of to children's children, when the Queen Empress rode in an open carriage drawn by six white horses through the streets of London to celebrate sixty glorious years at an open-air thanksgiving service on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral.

The sun shone all through the day, and the city was a pageant of the widest Empire the world had ever known. In the royal procession there were representatives of the dominions and colonies far across the seas - Indian rajahs, African chiefs, officers and men from service forces in Borneo, Hong Kong, West Africa and Jamaica - and stiffly-clad princes and statesmen to pay their respects from the foreign powers of half the world.The Queen's carriage was thronged by cavalry jingling in their scarlet and buff and blue and grey tunics, gleaming accoutrements and plumed helmets.Fifty thousand troops marched through London that day in the full dress uniform of their regiments, from the famed fighting men of the North West Frontier of India to the stalwart kilted Highlanders of Scotland. The Union Jack fluttered from every window and rooftop and the citizens of London cheered themselves hoarse as the bands thumped out 'Soldiers of the Queen.'

The Boys' Brigade had reason to share proudly in the pageantry, and they did. The returns for the very first session in Glasgow which had ended only thirteen years before on 30th April 1884 had declared: 1 Company, 3 Officers, 30 Boys. Now the Brigade commemorated the royal occasion with 'a loyal and dutiful address' in the name of 790 Companies, 2900 Officers and 35,000 Boys, a tribute of esteem, loyalty and appreciation. Besides this they could claim 27,000 Boys in the United States of America, 4000 in Canada, 2000 in South Africa, as well as Companies in the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand and India. The Boys' Brigade was not merely of the Empire. It was a truly international movement.

The Brigade could count the Diamond Jubilee Year an important stage in their own story. In recent years Brigade Council had met and been publicly recognized in many of the major cities of the United Kingdom - Sheffield, Bristol, Liverpool, Plymouth, Belfast, Carlisle, Dublin, Edinburgh, as well as in its native Glasgow. In this special year of rejoicing, the Annual Meeting was planned for London, the Metropolis of Empire as the B.B.Gazette reminded its readers, where, by happy coincidence, a B.B. Captain was Lord Mayor.

The London Boys and visitors who saw the royal pageant could remind themselves that the Queen had acknowledged their parade drawn up in her honour in half a dozen cities of her kingdom's of the London Battalion were invited by the authorities to be present at a special performance of the Royal Military Tournament commemoration of the Longest Reign.

The favourite stories of Henty and Kipling seemed to come alive before the very eyes of the Boys who watched and cheered. There passed before them on their nodding chargers the heroes of Empire who were their own B.B. Vice-Presidents: Earl Wolseley, Commander-in Chief of the British Army, who had been a soldier and wounded before the age of twenty, long before the Indian Mutiny, the Ashariti and Zulu Wars, and Tel-el-Kebir.Any full-blooded boy could recite his campaigns. And Field-Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar, V.C., on the very Arab steed which he had ridden at the head of his troops us victorious Afghan expedition. It was the kindly and muchd 'Bobs' who was to ask his Royal Highness, the Duke of Cornwall and York (the future King George V) if he would graciously me the first Royal Patron of The Boys' Brigade.

It was indeed a year of 'dominion over palm and pine'.It led William Smith to affirm openly that there was no reason to apologize for the military features of The Boys' Brigade. Drill and discipline, he declared again, were the secret of their esprit de corps. No wonder the Boys' favourite hymns at Battalion Display or Company Bible Class were: 'Onward Christian Soldiers!' and 'Fight the good fight!'

The turn of the century saw The Boys' Brigade in very good heart. There was a buoyant increase of a record 6000 Boys caused in part by the unrest and excitement of the South African War. There was a military air throughout the country, with much argument for and against, and few Boys did not have a relative in the Regulars, Reserves, Militia or Volunteers.Not only Princes and Field-Marshals, Archbishops and Lord Mayors, but also the widespread goodwill of the churches supported the B.B. in its Aim and Object. The attack from the religious press on bloodthirsty ruffians had largely died under the tidal wave of patriotism and loyalty.

The move to the Albert Hall for the Annual London Meeting and Demonstration was an important step. The Earl of Aberdeen, Honorary President and life-long friend of The Boys' Brigade, was to preside. There were to be more than 2000 Boys in uniform with a programme of displays which included:

A Brass Band and the Bugle Band of the lst Enfield Company was to play during the evening. And to crown all, a Pipe Band of Scottish Boys from the 102nd Glasgow Company was to raise the roof with the brave skirl of the pipes. A lady well-wisher in Govan was paying the pipers' fare to London and all their expenses for a sight-seeing tour.

In the midst of all this heady excitement, the Boy was, as always, the Boy. A Private who aspired to promotion set down his painstaking answer to drill notes in the Company examination: The improved method of forming fours is as follows: Take a pace to the left with your right foot, and a pace to the right with your left foot.