Number 7 Company, Coldstream Guards, pass St Stephen's Tower, containing the famous bell known as 'Big Ben', on their way to the Tower of London
[Picture: Sergeant Ian Houlding, Crown Copyright/MOD 2010]
The march was an arduous training exercise designed to challenge the young soldiers before many of them deploy on Operation HERRICK in Afghanistan in the coming months.
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the new Constable of the Tower of London, along with other senior members of the Coldstream Guards welcomed the Guardsmen when they arrived at the Tower on Saturday 30 January 2010.
The exercise replicates a march undertaken in 1660 led by General George Monck and an army of 6,000 to restore the Stuart family to the throne and secure the crown for King Charles II, following a state of national turmoil on the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658.
Major James Coleby, who organised and took part in the march, said:
"It has been a strenuous challenge, we were often under canvas in one of the worst-ever winters. Morale has remained particularly high though, especially when warmly welcomed as we passed through towns and villages on the route."
The march, known as Exercise Enduring Guardsman, left Coldstream on 6 January 2010, passing through Berwick-on-Tweed, Newcastle, Durham, York, Doncaster, Loughborough, Market Harborough, Milton Keynes, Dunstable, St Albans and Barnet, before arriving in central London.