Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6Various
Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Groups, Theory of" to "Gwyniad": Volume 12, Slice 6
Various
Encyclopedias and dictionaries
The Foot Guards comprise the Grenadier Guards, the Coldstream Guards,
the Scots Guards and the Irish Guards, each (except the last) of three
battalions. The Grenadiers, originally the First Foot Guards, represent
a royalist infantry regiment which served with the exiled princes in the
Spanish army and returned at the Restoration in 1660. The Coldstream
Guards are a New Model regiment, and were originally called the Lord
General's (Monk's) regiment of Foot Guards. Their popular title, which
became their official designation in 1670, is derived from the fact that
the army with which Monk restored the monarchy crossed the Tweed into
England at the village of Coldstream, and that his troops (which were
afterwards, except the two units of horse and foot of which Monk himself
was colonel, disbanded) were called the Coldstreamers. The two
battalions of Scots Foot Guards, which regiment was separately raised
and maintained in Scotland after the Restoration, marched to London in
1686 and 1688 and were brought on to the English Establishment in 1707.
In George III.'s reign they were known as the Third Guards, and from
1831 to 1877 (when the present title was adopted) as the Scots Fusilier
Guards.
The Irish Guards (one battalion) were formed in 1902, after the South
African War, as a mark of Queen Victoria's appreciation of the services
rendered by the various Irish regiments of the line.[1] The dress of the
Foot Guards is generally similar in all four regiments, scarlet tunic
with blue collars, cuffs and shoulder-straps, blue trousers and high,
rounded bearskin cap. The regimental distinctions most easily noticed
are these. The Grenadiers wear a small white plume in the bearskin, the
Coldstreams a similar red one, the Scots none, the Irish a blue-green
one. The buttons on the tunic are spaced evenly for the Grenadiers, by
twos for the Coldstreams, by threes for the Scots and by fours for the
Irish. The band of the modern cap is red for the Grenadiers, white for
the Coldstreams, "diced" red and white (chequers) for the Scots and
green for the Irish. Former privileges of foot guard regiments, such as
higher brevet rank in the army for their regimental officers, are now
abolished, but Guards are still subject exclusively to the command of
their own officers, and the officers of the Foot Guards, like those of
the Household Cavalry, have special duties at court. Neither the cavalry
nor the infantry guards serve abroad in peace time as a rule, but in
1907 a battalion of the Guards, which it was at that time proposed to
disband, was sent to Egypt. "Guards' Brigades" served in the Napoleonic
Wars, in the Crimea, in Egypt at various times from 1887 to 1898 and in
South Africa 1899-1902. The last employment of the Household Cavalry as
a brigade in war was at Waterloo, but composite regiments made up from
officers and men of the Life Guards and Blues were employed in Egypt and
in S. Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account