The London Victory Parade of 1982 was a British victory parade held after the defeat of Argentina in the Falklands War and organised by the City of London as a salute to the task force.[1][2] It took place in the United Kingdom capital of London, mainly encompassing a military parade with military bands through the City of London. The parade took place on 12 October 1982, almost four months after the Argentine surrender; it was the first time the City had celebrated a military event since it had entertained the crew of HMS Amethyst in 1949.[1]
The Parade began at Armoury House, off City Road near Finsbury Square and progressed via Finsbury pavement, Moorgate, Lothbury, Bartholomew Lane and Threadneedle Street past Mansion House, then continued along Poultry, Cheapside and King Street to Guildhall.[3] Approximately 300,000 people lined the mile-long route of the parade.[4] At Mansion House the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Christopher Leaver took the salute from the armed forces personnel as they marched past.[2][3] He was accompanied by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Admiral Sir Terence Lewin, and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Field Marshal Sir Edwin Bramall.[citation needed]
During the parade, there were several protests by peace campaigners opposed to the Falklands War and what they regarded as the militarism of the parade.[5] Seventeen people were arrested while trying to block a road to stop the parade. One of them was reportedly knocked unconscious when being thrown into the back of a police van.[6] A group of women from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp staged a protest that involved turning their backs on the parade as it marched past.[7]
After the parade there was a Salute to the Task Force luncheon at the Guildhall in which Thatcher gave a speech, saying:
We, the British people, are proud of what has been done, proud of these heroic pages in our island story, proud to be here today to salute the task force. Proud to be British.[8]
Notes
1 2 "City gives marching orders for Falklands parade". News. The Times. No.61348. London. 28 September 1982. col D, p.3.
1 2 "Falklands victory parade". The Times (London, England), September 2, 1982, Issue 61327, column A page 2.
1 2 "Falkland Parade". The Times 12 October 1982 column C page 28.
↑ Klaud Dodds, Pink Ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire (I B Tauris, 2002), p. 174.
The history of the Falkland Islands goes back at least five hundred years, with active exploration and colonisation only taking place in the 18th century. Nonetheless, the Falkland Islands have been a matter of controversy, as they have been claimed by the French, British, Spaniards and Argentines at various points.
The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.
ARA General Belgrano (C-4) was an Argentine Navy light cruiser in service from 1951 until 1982. Originally commissioned by the U.S. Navy as USS Phoenix, she saw action in the Pacific theatre of World War II before being sold to Argentina. The vessel was the second to have been named after the Argentine founding father Manuel Belgrano (1770–1820). The first vessel was a 7,069-ton armoured cruiser completed in 1896.
The Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It is a Grade I listed building. Designed by George Dance in the Palladian style, it was built primarily in the 1740s.
The Royal Gibraltar Regiment is part of British Forces Gibraltar for the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, which historically, along with Bermuda, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Malta, had been designated an Imperial fortress rather than a colony. It was formed in 1958 from the Gibraltar Defence Force as an infantry unit, with an integrated artillery troop. The regiment is included in the British Army as a defence engagement force.
Sir Rex Masterman Hunt, was a British Government diplomat and colonial administrator. He was Governor, Commander-in-Chief, and Vice Admiral of the Falkland Islands between 1980 and September 1985. During the Argentine invasion of the islands in 1982, he was taken prisoner and temporarily removed from his position.
The Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF) is the locally maintained volunteer defence unit in the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory. The FIDF works alongside the military units supplied by the United Kingdom to ensure the security of the islands.
The Falklands Play is a dramatic account of the political events leading up to, and including, the 1982 Falklands War. The play was written by Ian Curteis, an experienced writer who had started his television career in drama, but had increasingly come to specialise in dramatic reconstructions of history. It was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983, for production and broadcast in 1986, but was subsequently shelved by Controller of BBC One Michael Grade due to its pro-Margaret Thatcher stance and alleged jingoistic tone. This prompted a press furore over media bias and censorship. The play was not staged until 2002, when it was broadcast in separate adaptations on BBC Television and Radio. It was aired again on BBC4, 1 December 2020, over 18 years after it was last transmitted.
The London Victory Celebrations of 1946 were British Commonwealth, Empire and Allied victory celebrations held after the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II. On 1 November 1945 the Prime Minister appointed a committee under the chairmanship of the Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede to formulate plans for official Victory Celebrations. The celebrations took place in London on 8 June 1946, and consisted mainly of a military parade through the city and a night time fireworks display. Most British allies took part in the parade, including Belgium, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Luxembourg the Netherlands and the United States.
The cultural impact of the Falklands War spanned several media in both Britain and Argentina. A number of films and television productions emerged from the conflict. The first Argentine film about the war was Los chicos de la guerra in 1984. The BBC drama Tumbledown (1988) tells the story of a British officer paralysed from a bullet wound. The computer game Harrier Attack (1983) and the naval strategy game Strike Fleet (1987) are two examples of Falklands-related games. A number of fictional works were set during the Falklands War, including in Stephen King's novella The Langoliers (1990), in which the character Nick Hopewell is a Falklands veteran. The war provided a wealth of material for non-fiction writers; in the United Kingdom (UK) an important account became Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins' The Battle for the Falklands.
Events from the year 1982 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Falklands War.
There were many events leading to the 1982 Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina over possession of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.
Major General Sir John Jeremy Moore, was a British senior Royal Marine officer who served as the commander of the British land forces during the Falklands War in 1982. Moore received the surrender of the Argentine forces on the islands.
Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 4 May 1979 when she accepted an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding James Callaghan of the Labour Party, and ended on 28 November 1990 upon her resignation. She was elected to the position in 1979, having led the Conservative Party since 1975, and won landslide re-elections for the Conservatives in 1983 and 1987. She gained intense media attention as Britain's first female prime minister, and was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. Her premiership ended when she withdrew from the 1990 Conservative leadership election. As prime minister, Thatcher also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Leader of the Conservative Party.
The aftermath of the 1982 Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina affected world geopolitics, the local political culture in Argentina and the UK, military thought, medical treatment, and the lives of those who were directly involved in the war.
For more than a century the Military Parade of Chile or Great Military Parade of Chile has been a tradition within the Independence Day holidays in Chile. It is held in Santiago, Chile's O'Higgins Park on September 19 yearly in honor of the Glories of the Chilean Army with a military parade involving not just the ground forces but by the rest of the Chilean Armed Forces: the Chilean Navy, the Chilean Air Force, and the Carabineros de Chile. It is also in honor of the anniversary of the formal inauguration on that day in 1810 of the First Government Junta, which witnessed the first military parade of the independent nation at the Plaza de Armas, Santiago. It is the final act of the national independence celebrations, which are broadcast through TV and the Internet and radio.
The London Troops War Memorial, located in front of the Royal Exchange in the City of London, commemorates the men of London who fought in World War I and World War II.
"Rejoice" was a remark made by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street on 25 April 1982 following a statement read by Secretary of State for Defence John Nott on the successful recapture of South Georgia from Argentine forces, one of the first acts of the Falklands War. A journalist asked, "What happens next, Mr Nott?" at which point Thatcher intervened to state, "just rejoice at that news and congratulate our forces and the Marines", on which she and Nott headed back towards 10 Downing Street. As she reached the doorstep, Thatcher reiterated "rejoice" before entering the building. The words were controversial, with Thatcher's critics regarding them as jingoistic and triumphal, particularly regarding a military operation in which lives may have been lost. Thatcher's supporters regarded the words as a statement of support for British forces and a mark of the relief felt by Thatcher after a successful military operation. The phrase, often paraphrased as "rejoice, rejoice", has been used since in speech and art. Former prime minister Edward Heath uttered the words on Thatcher's resignation in 1990. Labour prime minister Tony Blair received dissent from his backbenchers in 2004 when, after the Iraq War, he asked the House of Commons "whatever mistakes have been made, rejoice that Iraq can have such a future".
At 10:15 pm (BST) on the night of 14 June 1982, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher announced to the House of Commons that negotiations had begun for the surrender of the Argentine invasion force in the Falkland Islands, ending the Falklands War. Her statement noted that "they are reported to be flying white flags over Port Stanley", the capital of the Falklands. This was based on an erroneous report from a front-line unit; in fact, no white flags are known to have been flown, though Argentine resistance ended, and a ceasefire was in place. The surrender was finalised by 1:30 am BST on 15 June. Thatcher's statement was welcomed from all sides in the House, and she left to join celebrating crowds in Downing Street. She later described the statement as "perhaps the proudest moment of my life".
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