One of the famous aspects of Windsor Castle is the immobility of the Guards at their posts. They remain rigid at post even when scumbags are shouting in their faces and doing their best to make them flinch or move.
But surely, there are some things for which they *must * move. Otherwise, they’re not really guarding anything. I imagine something like touching, or otherwise physically interfering with a guard will get you some undesirable action out of them. Likewise, there are probably areas and doorways that if you try to approach them, the guards will challenge you. Those are real guns they carry and it is one of the residences of Her Majesty. So I doubt that there’s any screwing around when it comes to security.
Does anybody know the actual rules regarding this?
“It’s the worst job in the British Army,” says one report:
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/30/narmy30.xml
And, while the guards are regular soldiers, many of whom see service in overseas deployment, the main security for the Royals at Windsor is the Metropolitan Police. http://www.met.police.uk/so/royalty_protection.htm
According to the Daily Mirror, security ain’t all it could be:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=13641153&method=full&siteid=50143
That said, to return to the OP, I am certain that the military sentries have standing orders for reaction in various circumstances, but I can’t find them on the 'net, unsurprisingly.
I have relatives who have done it. It has it’s downside - It’s very boring (BTW they are allowed to move, they have a little walkway they can march up and down to relieve their legs), however one of the bonuses is that it is a fabulous way to pull tourist birds, by all accounts they are beating them off with a pointy stick.
So swings and roundabouts…
I know that if the baiting by the public gets too bad, the guard has help available: when my parents were at Windsor, a particularly cretinous group of tourists were giving the guard hell. Unbeknownst to them, the Sergeant had come up behind them. He bellowed something to the effect of “CLEAR OFF!” and the tourists jumped out of their skins and left. In a hurry. I was there last year and remember seeing the guard detail change. The soldiers who were leaving marched up the road towards the inner part of the castle. Somebody must have crossed their path a little too close because the sergeant let loose with, “MAKE WAY FOR THE QUEENS GUARD!” like a British R. Lee Ermy. Very cool.