Commemorating the Commander of Crown Guards

AHCG President Imre Woth delivered a speech at the Sunday commemorative event which was attended by MoD Deputy State Secretary for Legal and Administrative Issues József Zoltán Tóth on behalf of Defence Minister Dr. Csaba Hende.

Following the honor guard’s arrival, first the national anthem was played then Imre Woth delivered a commemorative speech, highlighting the frontline service of the last commander of the Crown Guard and also noting that Ernő Pajtás wanted to be sent to the front in World War II as well, but he had no opportunity for that because by that time he was appointed commander of the Crown Guards. By great diplomacy he saved the men under him from a Nazi firing squad, and by rescuing the Sacred Crown he accomplished an unsurpassed feat.

“The best acid test of the Crown Guard’s historical role is the fact that it survived into the present as a living and working organization", the President of the AHCG said.
In what followed, leaders and representatives of the Association of Hungarian Crown Guards, the Knightly Order of Vitéz and the “Miklós Horthy" Society laid wreaths at the gravestone. The event finished with the sounds of the Szózat (second national anthem).

Ernő Pajtás Bankói

He was born in Miskolc on October 25, 1896. His father was an army officer, so he chose the military career path as his vocation. He was commissioned as a second-lieutenant in 1915, and received his first posting in the Imperial and Royal 34th Infantry Regiment. He was appointed Officer Commanding in 1928, then passed a staff officer course with excellent results and was transferred to the Crown Guard in 1937 as a subordinate officer. As Vitéz márkus batizfalvy László Máriássy’s successor, he was appointed Commander of the Crown Guard as of January 1, 1943. He rescued the Sacred Crown from Hungary and handed it over to the US Army in Mattsee at the end of World War II. He was not allowed to return to Hungary during the last years of his life. His ashes were returned to his homeland more than 40 years after his death. The President of the Republic of Hungary appointed Ernő Pajtás bankói posthumous major-general on August 20, 1993, the national day of King St. Stephen. His tombstone in the Farkasréti cemetery is decorated with a ribbon showing the Hungarian tricolor which marks the final resting place of a man who has done his homeland and the Hungarian nation a great service.