Cpl. Daniel Choquette of the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) holds the guard at Hyde Park Barracks in London, United Kingdom on July 11. (Submitted photo/Master Cpl. Antoine Brochu)

By Derek Cornet

tradition

LLRIB member invited to partake in historic military role in London

Jul 21, 2025 | 3:00 PM

Lac La Ronge Indian Band (LLRIB) member Cpl. Daniel Choquette is currently in London after having been invited to serve as a King’s Life Guard at Buckingham Palace.

“I am super honoured to have this experience, especially being a small-town boy from La Ronge,” the 28-year-old remarked.

“It’s absolutely amazing to have been selected to come down for this trip. It’s surreal almost that on my absolute first shift, I was the first man in the box. Just stepping out and seeing all of those people, I was starstruck almost by the hustle and bustle of London and everyone walking by.”

Choquette, who has been in the Canadian Armed Forces for 10 years, arrived in London on July 8 to perform the historic duty, which goes back nearly 400 years. The King’s Life Guard protects the palace day and night, as well as conducts patrols of the grounds.

This marks the third time a foreign country has been invited to undertake the largely ceremonial role. Canadians were also the ones invited to do so the first two times in 2000 and again in 2012.

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“It’s definitely very interesting. You meet a wide variety of personalities. I personally haven’t had any strange experiences,” Choquette explained.

“Personally, I have had some pretty wholesome experiences where it’s talking to people about what horse I am riding, kind of what we are doing down there, who we are, the fact that we are from Canada and a little bit of telling people to get outside of the box. I tend to put on my Canadian face for that and be a little bit more polite about it.”

His Majesty King Charles III is seen with Cpl. Daniel Choquette at Windsor Castle on July 14. (Submitted photo/Master Cpl. Antoine Brochu)

Choquette was born in Prince Albert and spent most of his childhood in La Ronge, where he was a member of the 899 Osprey Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron. He joined the military after high school, and he currently serves at CFB Edmonton.

Choquette primarily works with armoured vehicles, but he is also part of the Strathcona Ceremonial Mounted Troop, which supports and upholds cavalry traditions. He is one of 26 members of the troop invited to London to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the regiment.

“With our Canadian contingent that went down, the people have treated us very kindly,” Choquette said.

“We have had very few altercations with tourists or the public, so it has been an amazing experience being down here.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com