In the month of February, 1910, an Army Order was published announcing that His Majesty King Edward VII. had been graciously pleased to approve of the following regiments being permitted to bear the honorary distinction "Namur, 1695" upon their colours, in recognition of services rendered during the siege and capture of that city, 215 years previously: Grenadier Guards. Coldstream Guards. Scots Guards. Royal Scots. Queen's (Royal West Surrey). King's Own (Lancasters). Royal Warwicks. Royal Fusiliers. West Yorkshire. Bedfords. Leicesters. Royal Irish. Royal Welsh Fusiliers. King's Own Scottish Borderers. Previously to this date the only regiment which in any way commemorated its association with the siege of Namur was the 18th (Royal Irish), which was entitled to bear on its colours the words "Virtutis Namurcensis præmium," and which had received the title of the "Royal Regiment of Ireland" from King William himself for its conduct at the storming of that fortress. There was no good reason why the Royal Irish should have been honoured above its fellows. The details of the operations at Namur were open to all the world, and the casualties suffered by other corps showed that they too had borne their fair share of the fighting. [Illustration: Battlefields in NORTHERN EUROPE] Namur was one of the many fortified towns in Flanders which had fallen into the hands of the French during our struggles with that nation in the closing years of the seventeenth century. King William's military operations had not been attended with any marked degree of success. His troops, despite the gallantry of the English regiments, had been worsted at Steenkirk, Landen, and many other fights, and in the ranks of our own regiments there was a very decided feeling that our friends the Dutch were prone to throw the brunt of the hard work on us, and were not too eager to afford us that assistance in action which we had a right to expect. A glance at the casualty lists which follow the various actions--the names of which are inscribed on our colours--proves the truth of this statement. Whether at Namur, Dettingen, Emsdorff, in Flanders or in Spain, the British regiments were invariably expected to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for their allies.