The British military deployed 9,000 personnel in ceremonial and supporting duties on Saturday’s coronation, nearly 5% of all the UK armed forces, in the largest display of official pageantry for more than 70 years. But the carefully choreographed effort, eight months in the planning, comes at a time when recruitment is falling and the image projected by the army on parade is, some observers say, far removed from the needs of the modern military. Iain Overton, the director of Action on Armed Violence, specialising in military research, asked whether the “anachronistic militarism of bearskins and banners” made sense as armies...