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There was more than a slight wobble to the Colonel-in-Chief of the King’s Guard of Norway today as he emerged from his enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo to inspect his troops.

Perhaps distracted by the drum rolls and trumpet fanfare, the regiment’s longest-serving member at first veered slightly off the path and into the spectators on the zoo's Penguin Lawn.

Then, after a helping hand, he was back on course, waddling past the line of Guardsmen and occasionally stopping to look them up and down with a slightly critical eye.

When at last he reached the television cameras — after pausing solemnly in front of a 4ft bronze statue of himself — he appeared to be visibly warming to his role, puffing out his chest and raising his head with pride to show the fine yellow feathers on his neck.

In a scene that could have come straight from one of the more bizarre plays being staged across the city at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Nils Olav III then became surely the only penguin in history to be knighted by a British Major-General and sent on his way by pipers from the Universities Officers Training Corps.

Several hundred spectators watched as Major-General Euan Loudon went to lower a Norwegian officer's ceremonial sword over the bird while a veteran of the King’s Guard read a citation from King Harald V of Norway praising him as "a penguin every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of Knighthood and the Office aforesaid".

“Do I need to catch him or will he stop?” asked the Major-General as Nils Olav tottered towards the crowds before one of the zoo staff turned him back to receive his honour.

Nils Olav has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks since he was first adopted as a regimental mascot by the Norwegian King’s Guard in 1972 and assigned the rank of lance corporal.

He was promoted to corporal in 1982, Regimental Sergeant-Major in 1993, Honourable Regimental Sergeant-Major in 2001, and finally Honorary Colonel-in-Chief in 2005.

The current incumbent — now to be addressed as Sir Nils Olav III — succeeded to the role of mascot in 2004, the third king penguin at the zoo to take the role. He is just six years old, young by any standards to be carrying such responsibilities.

Today’s visit by the King’s Guard, the finest unit in the Norwegian armed forces, coincided with their appearance at the military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.

The Guard’s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Ingrid Margrethe Gjerde, said with a smile that she was humbled by the occasion. “I have to admit that when I studied at the Military Academy I never learnt anything about penguins or giving speeches in zoos,” she said.

Nils Egelien, vice president of the Norwegian Royal Guard Association, who began the association with Edinburgh Zoo by choosing the first “Nils Olav” in 1972, added rather more seriously: “It is a privilege and a great honour for me to stand here in front of you and very soon the Honorary Colonel-in-Chief, Nils Olav.

“And I tell you all that King Harald is very interested in the life and behaviour of Nils Olav. His Majesty sends Nils Olav his best greetings and congratulations.”

Major-General Loudon, the chief executive and producer of the Edinburgh Tattoo, marvelled at the animal’s ascent through the ranks. “It must be an achievement unmatched in the history of the King’s Guard,” he said. “And now to crown his service with the award of a knighthood is truly remarkable.”

With two flag bearers behind him and a badge of Norwegian knighthood attached to his right flipper, Sir Nils Olav looked every inch the Colonel-in-Chief as the King's Guards' Trumpet Corps played another fanfare.

Only when the bagpipes began did he appear to suffer the slightest lapse in manners, turning back towards his enclosure in a brief moment of sensory overload and burying his head in the trousers of one of the zoo assistants. Even the most impeccably behaved penguin knights, it seems, have their limits.

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