Many happy returns of the day when it comes Michael.

On tattered coats on sticks, if anyone is around in Nottingham on the 6th of April take a look what will be flying from the Flag Staff of the Castle.

If they hold with tradition you will see not a flag but an Officers Scarlet Tunic (45th Regiment of Foot - Now the Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters Regiment). It normally marks the anniversary of the storming of the Spanish Fortress city of Badajoz by Wellington's troops in 1812, so this year is the 200th Anniversary. The first British troops to get into the fortress were men from Picton's 3rd Division who escaladed the Castle walls, a Lieutenant from the 45th ran to the tower and hauled down the French Flag and substituted it with his own tunic to let those making the attacks against the main breaches in the walls and elsewhere that British troops were inside the fortress.