Royal Guard Company (Denmark)

The Royal Guard Company (Vagtkompagniet) is the part of Royal Life Guards which serves as an active protection force for the Danish royal family. Of the 300 in the company, 280 are conscripts.

Organisation
There are 3 Guard teams, made of approximately 80 conscripts and 8 sergeants. The teams are arranged by height, with the tallest conscripts serving in 1st team and the lowest in 3rd team.

Guard duties
The Guard Company provide a permanent guard at the Amalienborg Palace, Kastellet (part of the old fortification of Copenhagen), Rosenborg Castle/garrison of the Royal Life Guards in Copenhagen and the garrison of Høvelte. On occasions guard is kept at Fredensborg Palace, Marselisborg Palace, Gråsten Palace, Christiansborg Palace and other locations inside the Danish realm.

Drum Corps
One part of the Guard Company is the Fife and drum corps (Livgardens Tambourkorps), which consists of 8 drums and 8 fifes. It originally consisted of conscripts, however, after the Defence agreement 2005–09 which changed the conscription time for Life Guards from 12 to 8 months, there was not enough time to train the conscripts. The corps is therefore mostly enlisted.