Females among elite graduating from world famous Sandhurst Military Academy

Bahrain's Prime Minister, Sheikh Khalifa, was in Britain Thursday to watch his granddaughter become the first ever female from his country to graduate as a cadet officer at the famous Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

She was one of 190 officer cadets, 163 British and 27 from 14 countries to take part in a traditional passing out parade at Sandhurst.

As a military band played the theme song from the movie Star Wars, British Prime Minister Theresa May, representing Queen Elizabeth, carried out an inspection of new graduates.

May said for over two centuries, Sandhurst has been the ultimate training ground for the best of the best, preparing the future leaders of British armed forces and those of many of Britain's allies around the world.

She told them: "Two hundred years ago there would not have been any female cadets among your number. But among today's cohort is the first ever Bahraini woman to graduate, and also a constituent of mine who will be the first ever female officer to serve in the Royal Tank Regiment," saying it was a direct result of the decision to enable women to serve in the combat.

"As Britain leaves the European Union, I want us to build a new deep and special partnership between Britain and the EU, a partnership of values, interests and co-operation in areas such as security. So we will play our part to ensure that Europe is able to project its values and defend itself from security threats," May said. Endit