Escaped Household Cavalry horses that sparked panic in London are part of singer James Blunt’s old regiment the Life Guards

The escaped horses that have run loose in central London are from the regiment that singer James Blunt served in. 

The animals were spooked during their daily morning exercise on Horse Guards Parade, in Whitehall, at around 8.40am. 

Four people were hospitalised. It is understood that three of them are soldiers who have not sustained life-threatening injuries. 

The horses are from the Life Guards, one of two regiments of the Army’s Household Cavalry. 

Blunt served in the regiment in the 1990s after training at Sandhurst military academy and went on to see active service in Kosovo.

Both Prince Harry and Prince William were soldiers in the Household Cavalry’s other regiment, the Blues and Royals.   

Prince Harry was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the regiment in 2006 before being joined by Prince William later that year. 

The escaped horses that have run loose in central London are from the regiment that singer James Blunt served in. Above: Blunt serving in Kosovo in 1999

The animals were spooked during their daily morning exercise on Horse Guards Parade, in Whitehall, at around 8.40am. Five people, including a soldier who was riding one of the horses, were injured 

You’re Beautiful singer Blunt, 50, served in the Armed Forces for six years. 

As a Household Cavalry Life Guard, he stood sentry as the Queen Mother’s body lay in state and rode as the Queen’s Sovereign Escort on ceremonial escort. 

He was also one of the first peacekeepers to enter Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, where he encountered chilling evidence of ethnic cleansing.

This experience inspired his song No Bravery. 

Speaking of his time in Kosovo in 2021, he told of a tense encounter with Russian forces.

He said: ‘I was the lead officer of 30,000 NATO troops.

‘We got to an airport where the Russians were there already. I was given instruction to overrun and overpower them.

‘Fortunately, a general who had been given that instruction was confronted by our own general who said, “I’m not having my soldiers start World War III and told us to pull back”.’

Harry, the Duke of Sussex, rose to the rank of lieutenant in the Blues and Royals before he retrained as an Apache helicopter co-pilot in 2012 for his second tour of Afghanistan.

He chose to wear his regimental uniform when he married Meghan Markle at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel in 2018. 

The duke had been expected to follow his father King Charles and grandfather Prince Philip into the Welsh Guards after graduating from Sandhurst. 

He was said to have opted for the Household Cavalry so he could pursue his love of horses. 

William, who passed out of Sandhurst military academy after his younger brother, joined his brother in the Household Cavalry because of the variety of roles that the regiment undertakes. 

It guards the monarch at Buckingham Palace and acts as the Sovereign’s mounted escort on state occasions. 

It also provides reconnaissance support to airborne forces on operations. 

Both Prince Harry and Prince William were soldiers in the Household Cavalry’s other regiment, the Blues and Royals. Above: Harry with William in the uniform of the Household Cavalry’s Blues and Royals regiment on his wedding day in May 2018

Prince Harry wearing the tropical dress of the Blues and Royals as he attends the Anzac Memorial service in Hyde Park in October 2018

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her grandson Prince William, right, exchange smiles, as she inspects graduates during the Sovereign’s parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, December 2006

Prince William, foreground, marches with other graduates, during the Sovereign’s parade at Sandhurst in 2006

The Palace said that William was attracted by the regiment’s record in recent conflicts, including the Falklands War, the 1991 Gulf War and operations in Northern Ireland.  

The Blue and Royals and the Life Guards are the oldest and most senior regiments in the Army.

Princess Diana’s former lover, James Hewitt, served as a captain in the Life Guards.

Harry left the Army in March 2015 and then had to give up his honorary military appointments after ending his role as a working royal. 

Prince William went on to serve with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy before leaving active service in 2013.