Dedication, duty, and destiny. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together with the faith of the gospel. On the 26th of February, 1852, one of the worst naval disasters occurred off the coast of Gansbaai, not too far from Hoanas. Her Majesty shipped the Birkenhead struck a rock shelf and began to sink rapidly. The Birkenhead was carrying the 74th Foot and 78th Highlander regiments. They were Scottish and Irish warriors whose regiments had distinguished themselves in every conflict from the Napoleonic Wars through to the Crimean War, which was still ahead at that stage. Also on board with these troops were the wives and children of some of the officers. It became apparent that the floundering ship was going to sink. There were very few lifeboats on board. It was a metal paddle steamer, deemed unsinkable, with 12 watertight compartments, and therefore they had not provided adequate lifeboats. Nevertheless, calm prevailed. Orders were issued by Captain Salmond, women and children first. The women and children were placed into the few, very few, precious lifeboats, And there was just enough room for them. The men lined up in perfect military formation on the decks, in the dark, as their pipe band played. Singing Christian hymns, these Scottish and Irish stalwarts went down with a birkenhead into the shark-infested waters of the Indian Ocean. As the ship began to sink, the captain, Captain Salmond, issued the order, abandon ship, every man for himself. At this, Lieutenant Colonel Seaton, in charge of the infantry on board, shouted, stand fast. Do not attempt to swim to the lifeboats. If you do so, you will swamp and overload those ships and endanger the women and children. Go down with the ship. And they went down. They went down singing, and the boat sank, the Birkenhead sank within 20 minutes of striking the rock shelf. very short space of time. And it was remarked in inquiries later how the men were as orderly and as calm as if they were embarking on the ship, not going down with it. And many of those men were new recruits and had only been a few months in the service. And many officers expressed their amazement at their discipline and their courage and their dedication to duty. Very few men survived the 12-hour swim to the coast that night. 444 men drowned. Of the 643 souls on board, only 193 survived. Of the nine horses on board, all eight managed to swim safely to shore. Not one woman, not one child was lost. The soldiers and the sailors of the Birkenhead exercised Christian chivalry, something that this generation barely knows how to spell, let alone to understand. That in a time of crisis, men should give their lives for women and children. The discipline and the self-sacrificing courage of the men of Birkenhead inspired the poet Rudyard Kipling, to write, so they stood and was still to the Birkenhead drill, soldier and sailor too. The phrase Birkenhead drill came to be synonymous with courage, discipline and self-sacrificing chivalry. And so it was that the people who had been brought up on the story of the Birkenhead when the Titanic struck an iceberg and was going down The term was Women and Children First, which is what Captain Selman said, and the term was passed around Birkenhead Draw, meaning Women and Children First. Whatever happens, conduct yourself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Stand fast in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel. The men of the HMS Birkenhead certainly conducted themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. They stood firm on a sinking ship. They did not break ranks. They did not attempt to swim to the lifeboats. They did not endanger them by swamping them or overloading them. They did not want to endanger the lives of the women and children. Even while sharks were circling in that cold water at night, the men stood firm. They did their duty. Greater love has no man than this than it he laid on his life for his friends. John 15 verse 3 is written on many a tombstone, many a war memorial. I've just come back from Belgium. I saw that written on many tombs of British and Commonwealth soldiers who died around Ypres. It was said by Ian Smith, we were fighting for Christian civilisation and we sought to stand firm, we sought to hold the line, we sought to hold back Soviet communist advance. In 1893, a small reconnaissance patrol under the command of Major Alan Wilson of the Mashonaland Mounted Police, which later became known as the British South Africa Police, they were cut off by the flooded Shangani River and encircled by thousands of Maddabili warriors. Major Wilson's men fought to the last man, selling their lives dearly. They had a chance to escape at one point, But because they had wounded men who could not make the flooded river, they determined to stay. And aside from sending the scouts back to pass word to Major Forbes to send reinforcements, the rest of the 37 men stayed and fought to the last man. At a certain point, there was a break in the battle, and according to the Marabili chief, Majan, he offered them the chance to withdraw. They could even take They could take their wounded, they could take what horses were still alive and their weapons and they saluted them and said, you are brave men. And Major Alan Wilson's reply came back, white men do not retreat. And they saluted and continued until they'd run out of every bullet and they fought just in the end with the blade because their weapons were completely without any more ammunition. According to the Matabele warriors, Alan Wilson's patrol sang, and it was identified later by one of the Matabele warriors who was there, it was the national anthem, God Save the Queen, and they were heard to sing the Lord's Prayer together. After this battle, Major Forbes was in shock. The Administrator of Rhodesia, Leander Starr Jamieson, was considering evacuating Bulaware, when the Madhubili warriors started to come in and surrender. And Majan Dinduna said, the white men sang. They were men of men, and their fathers were men before them. If these young men could have fought like lions, what will happen when their fathers come for revenge? We want peace now. I think the Shingani patrol may be the only defeat that won a war. Because they fought so hard, these 37 men of the Shangani patrol, they ended the conflict. The Madibili War ended with that defeat because the Madibili saw how hard they fought and how relentlessly they stood and how they would not abandon their wounded comrades and how they would not even take the opportunity to leave when it was given to them. That was the last battle of the Madibili War. We want to make peace now. General Konstantin Filyun, who was the Chief of the South African Army when I served in the South African Infantry, addressed the issue of character under stressful situations. General Filyun was on South African television dealing with, in fact, the upcoming elections in 1994 when he was ambushed by the media who had prepared a clip on what they called the Angola Syndrome. And without him having seen it before, knowing that they were going to do this, they suddenly showed a clip of some long-haired, drug addict, apparently South African army veterans, who had overflowing ashtrays and shaking hands, and described how they were ruined by the army. And they asked General Fillion, don't you feel guilty of having destroyed these men's lives? General Filion responded very smoothly and his answer was so insightful as he said, those people who evidence character in times of war are the same people who show character in times of peace. He said, the people who are courageous in wartime are the same people who have integrity and courage and character in peacetime. Those who are moral failures in civilian life, are the same people who would be military failures in a time of war. It's not the military or the war that ruin them. The severe stresses and crisis only reveal what's already there. Either strength of character or lack of character. Those who fail in war would have failed anyway. The stresses of the war just showed it earlier. You have never lived until you've almost died. And for those who fight for it, life has a flavour the protected will never know. In the Army we were continually reminded, winners never quit, quitters never win, never give up, never give in, always persevere, adapt, innovate, keep going on, make a plan, do not give up. The Army disciplined us and forced us to do without. to do without sleep and food and be pushed to the limit and to keep going when everything in you said give up. Selection Army and in sports teams is aimed at weeding out those who have weak mentality. It's not physical strength that determines, it's mental tenacity and determination. In the military they would deliberately discourage and tempt candidates to give up. Remember one particular hike over the mountains, how, as we found the compass reading to this place, there was a brie flask going, there were the Coca Colas on ice, and the meats, and, do you want this? You can have it, just hand in your number. And you're off the course, and off you go. How easy. They made it so tempting. While they were sitting with deck chairs and hammocks, and they were deliberately tempting to give up. But of course, A real soldier cannot sell his inheritance for massive pottage like Esau. Therefore you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. There is a time to be born and there is a time to die. There is a time to plant and there is a time to pluck up what is planted. There is a time to kill and there is a time to heal. There is a time to break down, and there is a time to build up. There is a time to weep, and there is a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn, and there is a time to dance. There is a time to cast away, and there is a time to gather. There is a time to embrace, and there is a time to refrain from embracing. There is a time to gain, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear, and a time to sew. A time to keep silent and a time to speak. There is a time for love and there is a time to hate. There is a time for war and a time for peace. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity in our hearts. That's in Ecclesiastes chapter three. There are times when we must stand up and speak up and step out and fight the good fight of faith. We need to be ready to defend our families, our faith, and our future. But he who does not provide for his own, and especially for those in his own household, he has denied the faith and he is worse than an infidel. The 11th of November is packed full of meaning for anybody who had relatives who fought in the world wars, or for all of us who had the privilege of growing up in Rhodesia. 52 years ago, Thursday, the 11th of November, 1965, at the most solemn hour of the 11th hour of the Armistice Day, Ian Douglas Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, signed Rhodesia's unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. And it's said that Harold Wilson was more outraged over the timing than over the fact of Rhodesia's independence. It was timed to make a point We in Rhodesia had provided more men percentage to manpower of the country to fight in the First World War and the Second World War and even in land conflict than any other part of the British Empire. It was meant to be one for all and all for one. And yet when we were attacked, when we were targeted by international communism, the British did not aid us, they did not support us, they sanctioned us and supported the very terrorists who we were striving to keep out of our country. Throughout the English-speaking world, the 11th of November is observed as Remembrance Day, to solemnly recall the end of hostilities of the First World War, the Great War, the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In time it's come to be observed as a memorial day for all who have died in all the conflicts But in Rhodesia, it particularly reminds us of our fight for independence. My father served in the Royal Artillery all six years of the Second World War, much of it in the Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery, mostly in North Africa and Italy. He was involved in the Battle of El Alamein. The first time I saw Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, I was a young boy of 14 at the Bulowo Club. Standing outside the Bulwer Club, I'd heard that my father had said that the Prime Minister's coming to visit. And wanting to see a real, live Prime Minister, I was standing there, my cat was sitting on the wall, and I expected an entourage. Little did I know that's not Ian Smith's way. There was no outriders and sirens and police cars, it was just a beat-up old Peugeot 404. Came down the road, outstepped the Prime Minister, no aide de camp, no bodyguard, no chauffeur, no policeman in sight. The most hated man in Africa, they called him. He was also the most fearless. He didn't see the need for bodyguards. And when I met him later, after my time in the army, after the battle for Rhodesia was over, Ian Smith summoned me to his daughter's house in Fishhook, in Halk Bay, and he wanted to know what these crazy ex-Rhodesians were doing in war-torn countries like Mozambique and Angola. and explained our mission and Bible smuggling and helping to persecute church. And he gave advice and guidance on how we could evade enemy patrols and how we could safely infiltrate and exfiltrate Mozambique. I remember sitting there in confusion thinking, what would a politician know about these things? But of course, Ian Smith was six years of the Second World War in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force, flying hurricanes and spitfires. He suffered a severe crash landing in North Africa and he was shot down in Italy. And he explained what it meant to bail out of a Spitfire. He had to flip the plane upside down, remove the canopy, pull his seatbelt, and drop upside down free of the hurricane before pulling his ripcord. That's got to require some nerves of steel because he couldn't exactly practice that. It's not like having an ejection seat that jet fighters today have. And then he spent the next five months working behind the lines fighting with the partisans. And when he heard about D-Day he decided to hike over the Alps into France. And he said he made a terrible mistake. One night he took his boots off and he could never get them back on. They were so frozen solid he couldn't fit his feet on here to spend the rest of his hiking over the Alps in just his socks and barefoot effectively. Ian Smith, of course, also received all the various reports from Combined Operations and Salute Scouts and Special Air Service on what was going on in Mozambique. He actually had a very good understanding of Mozambique, and I had forgotten all this at that time, that we weren't dealing with a normal politician. Ian Smith was a statesman. He was a farmer, an airman, a fighter, a principled person. He was never a politician. In fact, the only complaint or criticism I could ever offer for Ian Smith is he is too much of a gentleman. I once said to Ian Smith, I was interviewing him on radio for Radio Tygerberg, I said, Mr Smith, were you not perhaps too honourable? dealing as you were with blood-sucking backstabbers like the British Foreign Office. Could you not have just accepted the terms of the Fearless or the Tiger Talks and afterwards had a referendum and done what you knew was best for our country? And he looked at me with horror and shock. He sat up to his full height and he looked at me and he said, oh no, we could never have done that. That wouldn't have been honest. We couldn't build Rhodesia on a lie. What kind of example would that be to the Africans? He shook his head in absolute shock and I thought, Mr Smith is too honourable a man for a position as Prime Minister. He was dealing with duplicitous backstabbers, but he kept his honour. He's one of the very few people who served in politics that I am proud to have met and didn't feel I had to wash my hand and dettol afterwards. He said what he meant and he meant what he said. He was a man of principle. You can't say that about many people who serve as head of state. He was also fearless. I noticed he never had bodyguards. And he laughed and said, well, frequently he would chase away every person from Independence, the Prime Minister's residence in Salisbury. There wouldn't be a cook in the kitchen or a guard at the gate, just his wife and him. He couldn't be bothered with all these people fussing around him. and he would break his own country's rules by travelling without a convoy on his own in time of war down to his farm near Silikwin, near Gwilo. And Ian Smith never bothered with bodyguards, he never bothered with people around him. And when I asked him about this, because I'd seen Bob McArb's Silent Whalers, the entourage of all these howling police sirens and motorbike outriders and trucks of gooks with RPGs going through Harare down Samora Michelle Avenue for Robert Mugabe. And I mentioned this to Ian Smith one time while we were interviewing him on radio, and he laughed and he said, I'm a lifelong Presbyterian. I fear God. I survived the Second World War. What do I need to be afraid of? And that's the attitude of the man we were privileged to have as head of state. My first history teacher in high school, Mr Rhys Davies, was also a member of parliament. And he said to us, in the first lesson of high school, of history, he said, beware the victor's version. Wartime propaganda turns into peacetime textbooks. You know that Great Britain is lying about us now, here in Rhodesia. Why would you trust what they say about the first, the second world war or anything else? Beware the victor's version. Politicians lie. School textbooks are packed with lies. That was a good piece of advice, not that I knew what to do with it at the time. It was too early in my life. I had trouble being able to understand that the textbook could be wrong. I remember meeting with other key leaders in our country. Father Arthur Lewis, an Anglican missionary, Church of England missionary, lived in Rhodesia for 52 years. What a great man. He ended up being a senator in the Rhodesian government. He's the one who blew the whistle on the World Council of Churches. He wrote the book Christian Terror, how the World Council of Churches was funding the terrorists who were murdering missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and Christians, herding them into churches and burning it down upon them. And he blew the whistle. and led to the Salvation Army, the Baptists and others pulling out the World Council churches in protest. Father Arthur Lewis, although born in Britain, was actually banned from entering Britain during the time of him being a senator in Rhodesia. Interesting that you can be banned from the land of your birth from entering it. But then, for that matter, Ian Smith was prevented from taking part in the Battle of Britain commemorations, even though he had served with distinction in the Royal Rhodesian Air Force. We know that we're not dealing with honourable people on the other side. We're continually needing to re-evaluate everything that we are told. As Ian Smith declared, we were never beaten by our enemies. No, we were betrayed by our friends. In standing firm against communist aggression for 15 years, Rhodesia won valuable breathing space for the free world. In the same way as the 300 Spartans held up the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, in the same way as the Knights of St. John held out in the four-month siege of Malta against 40,000 Ottoman Turks, I believe that in time history will come to recognise that the courage of Rhodesians in standing alone against communist aggression during the heights of the Cold War for 15 years bought valuable time And in fact, the victory of the West, led by Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and others, against the Soviet Union, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the falling down of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Iron Curtain, was no small measure made possible by the Rhodesian's buying valuable time, when the West was just appeasing and giving one country after the other over to the Soviet bear. The reign of terror And the state-sponsored terrorism of Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF regime in Zimbabwe has vindicated Ian Smith's position. It has proved Rhodesia's stand right and just. It has become clearer that what we were standing against and what we were standing for was really a just cause and a just war. Where is justice in this confused, chaotic, and corrupt world. Is there justice for the many farmers who were murdered, the many soldiers who died, the many civilians who were targeted, for the people, the pensioners in Zimbabwe that we continue to try to help and visit and deliver aid to? There doesn't seem to be much justice in this world, certainly not if you look to The Hague. to the so-called Palace of Justice or to the UN or to the so-called leaders of the free world. But we must live our lives in the light of eternity. There's an appointment not one person will be able to miss. In fact, nobody will even be able to be late for this appointment. Hebrews 9 verse 27 tells us, it is appointed unto man once to die and after that to face the judgment. If we seek justice just this side of eternity, we will be sorely disappointed, disillusioned, and frustrated. But we know that there is a day of judgment coming. Our Lord Jesus Christ will return, and every eye will behold Him, and every knee will have to bow, and every tongue will have to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And that includes Karl Marx. And it includes Vladimir Lenin. And Mandela. and Mugabe, and there will not be one person who will not have to bow the knee before the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Conqueror, the Eternal Judge, the Creator, the One who has made us, and the One to whom we need to give an account. And justice will be received for those whose crimes were not punished on earth, and it is something that is so important for the widow and the orphan and the person who grieves. The scriptures declare that God will crush the skulls of his enemies, of all those who hate him, and kill his people. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. Many lies have been told and published against us, and I hear and have to correct people all over the world as I travel on missions who say, oh, but wasn't Rhodesia this, that, and the other? And we should not be so concerned what people say about us, but we should all be concerned about the one vote and opinion that really counts, and that is the one of our Creator and the Eternal Judge. St. Augustine wrote As the city of Rome fell and the Roman Empire that was meant to have stood for a thousand years collapsed, he wrote the book City of God. And St. Augustine, who was in North Africa, roughly where Tunisia is today, great church father, he wrote City of God. And he said, there are cities built by men, and men destroy those cities. And there is a city built by God, which no one can destroy. And he pointed out that we are actually dual citizens. Yes, you might be a citizen of Rhodesia or South Africa on Earth, but you can also be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. We know that that which is on Earth is temporary. But eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. The apostle Paul said, we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. What will heaven be like? The scripture tells us there will be no hunger or thirst, no more sorrow, crying, dying, or pain. The Apostle John describes in heaven where we will have reunion with those loved ones who have gone on ahead. Earth is actually the land of the dying. We often speak about being in the land of the living and others who have passed on in the church triumphant as in the land of the dying. Not so. This is the land of the dying. We live in the land of the dying. Those who have died and gone before us, they are in the land of the living. They're in the land of eternal life, real life. It is not true that our beloved ones, like Ian Smith, are dead. They're more alive now than we are. Eternal life is the permanent. We are in the transient here. In heaven, we will experience glory, the presence of God, divine comfort, the tree of life, coming into possessions of the treasures that we've sent on ahead. We lay up our treasures in heaven. Our heart will be there. We will have opportunities for gain. We will be with Christ, which is far better. For me to live as Christ and to die as gain, said the Apostle Paul. We will experience perfection and safety from the second death, the morning star and authority of the nations. And Christ says he will confess before the Father and the holy angels, those who have confessed him before men here on earth. The living waters, worship. We will have glorified bodies. Now when you understand that compared to some of God's creatures, we are almost blind and deaf. You know that dogs can hear so much clearer than we can. And their sense of smell is about 2,000 times more acute than ours. And an eagle has an eyesight 12 to 20 times better than the best eyesight of man on earth. And when you realize that we can hear beautiful music which can inspire us and cause our hearts to thrill here on earth now, but we're limited in such a scale and such a range. Imagine the sounds we will hear in heaven when we have perfect hearing, the sights we will see when we have perfect sight, when you can even go from the perspective of eternity and look back at scenes and come to understand mysteries of history and what really happened. As someone who loves history, I'd be very interested. People say, what will we do in heaven? Well, I can just imagine the joys of being able to find out what really happened. And to be able to witness, because from eternity it's possible, witness the Battle of Waterloo, Trafalgar, Shangani, and other areas. To be able to understand perfectly that which we only see in a glass dimly now. Imagine the incredible intellectual stimulation of a sinless universe and a perfect mind. They say that the greatest geniuses on earth barely used 10% of their intellectual capacity. Einstein thought that maybe he had used 4% of his intellectual capacity. Imagine when all sorrow and aches and pain and grief and selfishness and human frailty, anger and temper and pride is gone. Imagine all deceit and darkness and malice is removed. If we can enjoy such beauty now at Victoria Falls, Wanky Game Reserve, Kirstenbosch Gardens, in a fallen world under the burden of sin, imagine what incredible, indescribable beauty we will be able to enjoy in the paradise of God in eternity. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor sighing. There shall be no more pain, for the former things will have passed away. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed in His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord and trust in Him and He will bring this to pass. Jesus Christ came to reach those people who feel that nobody cares. Well, we know that the UN and the British Empire didn't care. But there is one who cares. There's one that we can trust. There's one who will not betray us. The Lord Jesus Christ does care. He gives freedom to the addicts. He is a friend to the friendless. He is a helper to the helpless. He loves the unloved. He accepts the outcasts. He changes the unchangeable. He forgives the unforgivable. He accomplishes the impossible. He saves sinners. He seeks the lost. He gives direction to the aimless. He gives hope to the disillusioned. He gives truth to the confused. He gives joy to the depressed. Purpose to the purposeless. He gives hope to the hopeless. He redeems and He renews. He touches and He transforms. He answers prayer and He works miracles before our eyes. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, and all things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. God gives the very best to those who leave the choice to him. We do not know when and we do not know under what circumstances our lives will come to an end, but we do know that when we die, we will stand before mighty God, our creator, our eternal judge, and we will give an account of our lives to him. Do not be amazed at this, said Jesus, for the time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice, and they will come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. At death we leave behind everything we have, and we'll take with us everything we are, our character. The character with which we die is the character with which we'll stand before God on the day of judgment. Only those who surrender their lives to Lord Jesus Christ will be able to enter heaven and enjoy these forever. If you are prepared to die, then you are prepared for anything. Like Alan Wilson's patrol, they were ready to die. Until you're free to die, you're not free to live. It ought to be our business every day to prepare for our last day. And if we take care of our life, God will take care of our death. In the Bible, we are told it is better to go to a funeral than to go to a party. because the living should always remind themselves that death waits for us all. That's Ecclesiastes 7.2. There is a time for everything and there is a season for every activity under heaven. Being mindful of death should make us serious, industrious and conscientious. Only one life that will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. We need to work out our priorities in the light of eternity. We need to invest our time and our talents and our treasures in that which is going to last forever. The people and the creatures of God, the Word of God, the Kingdom of God, this is what is ultimately important. In the light of eternity, we need to review our life's work, our relationships, our habits and our activities. One day we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. In eternity, will any of us regret praying too much? Studying God's Word too intently, being too forgiving, being too generous, being too evangelistic? Are you ready? Work out your priorities in the light of eternity. We must be ready at all times for that which can happen at any time. Can you say, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain? Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us. and the sin which she easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. Let us pray. Lord God, we want to thank you and we want to praise you for who you are, for what you have done, for your grace and mercy, for your loving kindness. We want to thank you, Lord, for examples of excellence in history and in the scriptures. We want to thank you, Lord God, for the privilege we have had of being part of a great, glorious, and courageous enterprise which brought civilization to the wilderness and which managed to bring peace for decades to savage tribes and nations. We pray, Lord God, that you may bring to fulfillment all those good purposes. We pray, Lord, that you would judge the wicked, that you'd reward those who have been unselfish and courageous, And we ask, Lord God, that you would guide us in the way everlasting, for we pray it in Jesus' precious and holy name. Amen. We will now have the regiment poem by Dave Blacker. They northward roared across the land, the Pawnee forest, Scrothin's sand. Young troopers far from England's reed, to take the land few yet had seen. For Queen, for country, and for law, set to inspire a sense of awe, and friend and foe like a maze, for these were England's glorious days. And when that century had died, there followed on a force of pride. The BSAP had had its birth, and now was still to prove its worth. Across Rhodesia's varied lands, we held the reins in steady hands. Kept the peace, upheld the law, until there came a wanted war. We fought to keep what had been won, so little time, so little done. To none our faults could we atone, none at our backs we stood alone. With courage, honour, sense of pride, black and white stood side by side. As did those troopers long before, With fortitude our role we bore. We saw as they, Zambezi's gong, The noble sable, Lion's yawn, Watched the Jumbo's ponderous tread, The spiral horns of Kudu's head, The brilliant flash of Bluejay's flight, The flying ants round campfire light, The fleet in parlour make its run, The glorious sight of setting sun. But in an ever-changing scene, where time erases what has been, we watch the land revert and change to values we considered strange. But all of us can feel with pride that comradeship naught can deride, and in our hearts know what is meant each time we toast the regiment.