AN ARMY regiment will march through the streets of Winchester for the last time next month.

The Royal Green Jackets will exercise their right to conduct a Freedom Parade on Saturday, July 8.

Royal Green Jacket troops and the Light Division Band will fill the Broadway once more with the sights and sounds of military life.

The parade marks the 40th anniversary of the Royal Green Jackets and will also be the last parade before the regiment merges with the enlarged Light Infantry to form the Rifles.

The Rifles' regimental headquarters will continue to be at Peninsula Barracks in Winchester, along with the Royal Green Jackets Museum, continuing a relationship with the city stretching back more than 148 years.

The freedom was first bestowed in 1946 on the King's Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade. It was later transferred to the Royal Green Jackets following the amalgamation of these two Regiments with the 43rd & 42nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

The celebrations start with a series of military display stands in the Broadway from 9.30am. The parade starts at 11.30am and ends with the regiment marching through the city to Peninsula Barracks accompanied by the sounds of the Band and Bugles of the Light Division.