Operation Triumph (Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's 100th Birthday Tribute)

Escorted by the Commanding Officer, LCol Christopher Thompson, Her Majesty inspects the Regiment in Toronto on the 22 May 1939 before presenting New Colours.

Operation Triumph was the name given to The Toronto Scottish Regiment's redeployment to Europe by Commanding Officer Lieutenant-Colonel Julian Chapman. This was the fourth time this century that the Tor Scots and the 75th Battalion (Canadian Expeditionary Force) had crossed the Atlantic. Two of the trips were in defence of freedom, and two were in celebration of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's 90th and 100th birthday. Her Majesty is the Colonel-in-Chief of The Toronto Scottish Regiment and has been since 1937. During this period the Queen Mother has visited Canada and the Regiment eight times since 1939. On that occasion she presented New Colours to the Regiment. 1989.

As the Unit Information Officer Roberts deployed to London several days before the main body to liaise with the British Army and to establish contacts with British media and London based Canadian reporters. Immediately after he arrived Master Warrant Officer Rob Gilmore issued him with a cellphone, the unit had rented three for use during the deployment and they turned out to be invaluable. Next he made contact with Mr. Terry Blocksidge, Media Relations at the Canadian High Commission in London who provided tremendous co-operation. Mr. Blocksidge welcomed Roberts into his office, after a conversation which was peppered with useful background information, Terry handed over his binder of media contact lists.

CBC News Special Report

Before leaving for England, Roberts received a phone call from Colonel Robert Hilborn, a former Honorary Colonel of the Regiment. The Colonel has a long history of helping to organize visits to Canada by the Queen Mother. Hilborn told Roberts that CBC Newsworld producing a special report on Her Majesty's birthday. The network had interviewed him and were looking for video stock footage previous visits specially 1939. Roberts contacted the producer provided several leads.

Also prior to leaving for the UK, Roberts had been in touch with the second-in-command of the Canadian Forces Photo Unit based in Ottawa. He explained that The Toronto Scottish Regiment could not provide financial funding, and that there two other Canadian units taking part in the historic tribute in London. He asked if the CF Photo Unit could cover the event? A week before he left, a video camera operator and a still camera person were assigned. Immediately after he arrived in London, Roberts received a call on his cellphone from Canada putting him in-charge of co-ordinating public affairs for the Canadian contingent in London.

The British television network ITN had the broadcast rights for the Royal Tribute to be shown around the world. Roberts visited the Headquarters of ITN to meet Producer Angela Doyle and to request that the CF Photo Unit be allowed to bring their Betacam camera on to Horse Guards Parade. There was concern on the part of ITN that this would create a precedent, the network had exclusive broadcast rights for the Tribute. Access would only be granted during the rehearsals.

In the days leading up to Tribute, Roberts made contact with reporters representing Canadian media, including; Paul Hunter of CBC Television, Allan Dow of CTV Television, Olivia Ward of the Toronto Star, Allan Freeman of the Globe & Mail, Matthew Fisher of Sun Media, and Kevin Ward of Broadcast News. He also contacted CNN's London Bureau, and the British PA News Centre. The CBC was picking up the ITN feed and broadcasting the Tribute live back to Canada. Because of this, Paul Hunter wanted to have interviews with three soldiers recorded and packaged the day before the event, so they could be edited and fed back to Canada ahead of time. Roberts arranged for the CBC crew to view the Tuesday rehearsal on Horse Guards, and then conduct their interviews. That evening he received a message that CBC Metro Morning, a Toronto based radio station, wanted to conduct a live interview on their Wednesday morning broadcast. He called the station and spoke to a researcher, and arranged for a pre-interview with LCol Julian Chapman. The problem was, at the time, Chapman was taking part in a social event at The London Scottish Armoury. Roberts located the CO, explained the situation, found a quiet room and the 15 minute pre-interview took place. The next morning, Toronto time, the Commanding Officer was interviewed live on his cellphone.

On Wednesday July 19th, the day of the Tribute, Roberts had arranged for interviews between reporters and soldiers from the Canadian contingent during the morning rehearsal. While he was in a taxi on the way to Horse Guards Parade, LCol Chapman called to say that he was at the interview location at Whitehall, because of a reported bomb threat he had been ordered out. Immediately Roberts got out his media contact list and started calling their cellphones. He managed to contact all of them, and redirected them to a site on The Mall near Admiralty Arch. The interviews started a few minutes late. The Tribute started at 5:00pm and the weather was perfect without a cloud in the sky. The Toronto Scottish Regimental Pipes and Drums were the largest Commonwealth contingent on parade. Unit soldiers acted a guides in the stands for some of the 13,000 audience.

Some of the media coverage generated

July 19th	July 20th	July 20th	July 20th

	July 18th - Page A13
	July 18th - Page F2
	July 20th - Front Page
	July 20th - Page A3
	July 20th - Page A3
	July 20th
	July 20th - Canadian Press report
	July 20th - Canadian Press report

Immediately after the tribute Roberts had arranged for Kevin Ward of Broadcast News / Canadian Press to conduct telephone interviews with several soldiers. With his cellphone he went through the Chelsea Barracks looking for volunteers. The interviews were fed back to Canada for use by Canadian radio stations across the country. Reporter Kevin Ward's story was published in the Halifax Herald.

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