Ceremony of the Keys (London) passes his lantern to a soldier, and marches with his escort to the outer gate. The sentries on duty salute the Queen’s Keys as they pass. The Warder first locks the outer gate and then the gates of the Middle and Byward Towers. The Warder and escort march down Water Lane, until they reach the Bloody Tower archway where a sentry challenges the party to identify themselves: The Warder and escort march down to the foot of Broadwalk Steps where the main Tower Guard is drawn up to meet them. The party halts, and the officer in charge gives the
Ceremony of the Keys (Gibraltar) George Augustus Eliott, reputedly would carry the keys with him everywhere; it was rumoured he slept with them under his pillow at night. The ceremony was reinstituted in 1933 and is currently performed twice a year (in April and October) by the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and visiting British units and bands. In the modern version of the ceremony, at the firing of the sunset gun, the Governor of Gibraltar symbolically hands the keys of the fortress to the Port Sergeant. The Port Sergeant, accompanied by an armed escort, marches away to symbolically lock the gates of the fortress for the