1664: As the Second Dutch War broke out, a special regiment of 1,200 men were trained for the Duke of York and Albany’s Maritime Regiment of Foot – the Royal Navy’s earliest form of raiding force and the foundation of today’s Royal Marines.

1704: Six Royal Marrines regiments are raised for the War of Spanish Succession, fighting with a brigade of soldiers who attacked Gibraltar and held its fortress while under constant siege from the enemy.

1805: At the Battle of Trafalgar, Lord Nelson defeated French and Spanish troops off Cape Trafalgar on October 21 with Royal Marines making up more than 10% of his force. One officer, Second Lieutenant Roteley, described the scene as being ‘like a hailstorm of bullets passing over our heads on the poop, where we had forty Marines with small arms’.

1915: The Ottoman Empire entered World War I in 1915, and the Royal Marines were part of the force tasked with opening the Dardanelles in the Gallipoli Campaign. Two battleships brought Marine detachments who accomplished their tasks and re-embarked.

1918: On St George’s Day, 1918, British naval forces launched a raid on Zeebrugge to deny German U-boats, based in Bruges, access to the English Channel. A force of Royal Marines landed along the Zeebrugge Mole and destroyed German guns, leading to three ships being sunk, blocking the canal.

1942: Winston Churchill, trying to find a way to more effectively fight Hitler with fewer resources, ordered the creation of the commandos – highly-trained personnel who would go on to play crucial roles in the Arakan campaign, the Allied landings in Sicily and the 1944 invasion of Normandy.

1982: Royal Marines played an active role throughout Britain’s defence of the Falkland Islands from Argentinian invasion. Towards the end of the crisis, M Coy Gp landed from a small task group to reclaim Southern Thule in the South Sandwich Islands.

2001: The Royal Marines are at the vanguard of the British war effort in Afghanistan, mounting a 13-year-long counter-insurgency campaign.

2003: 40 Commando is deployed to north west Iraq, secures initial targets and advances towards Basra, facing heavy fire for three days before taking over Saddam Hussein’s palace. Just hours later, commandos were distributing crucial humanitarian aid in the country.

2017: After Hurricane IRMA in September 2017, personnel from 3 Commando took part in an international relief operation in the Caribbean. More than 400 men and women deployed in 72 hours, helping to repair 22 schools and five hospitals, and distribute 30 tons of food and 60,000 litres of water.