The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and AssociationsHulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
History
The Flags of the World: Their History, Blazonry, and Associations
Hulme, F. Edward (Frederick Edward)
Flags
The number of colours borne by the different regiments was formerly very
irregular: sometimes it was one to a company, sometimes only one to a whole
regiment, now it is two to each battalion. During the eighteenth century
several regiments carried three colours, and the 5th, or Northumberland
Fusiliers, continued to do so until 1833. By an unfortunate accident these
were then all burnt, and when the question of granting new colours came
forward, the right to carry the third was objected to, and the claim had to
be surrendered. King Charles's Royal Regiment of Foot Guards lost eleven
out of thirteen colours at Edgehill.
The Standards carried by the Life Guards, Horse Guards, and Dragoon Guards
are of crimson silk, thirty inches by twenty-seven; and the guidons of the
dragoon regiments are forty-one inches by twenty-seven, are slit in the fly
and have the outer corners rounded off. The tassels and cords are of
crimson silk and gold, and each flag bears the Royal or other title of the
regiment in letters of gold in a circle, and beneath it the number of the
regiment, all being surmounted by the crown, surrounded by a {66} wreath of
rose, shamrock, and thistle, and the honours. Where a regiment has a
particular badge, such device will be placed in the centre, and the
territorial and numerical position placed outside; thus the Scots Greys
(the 2nd Royal Dragoons) bear as their badge the Imperial Eagle of France,
because at Waterloo this distinguished regiment captured the eagle of the
French 45th Regiment, on which were inscribed the words Jena, Austerlitz,
Wagram, Eylau, and Friedland.[50] The 3rd Dragoons have as their badge the
white horse of Hanover, and, as record of good service, Salamanca,
Vittoria, Toulouse, Peninsula, Cabool, Moodkee, Sobraon, Ferozeshah,
Punjaub, Chillianwallah, Goojerat. The Lancers and Hussars, like the Royal
Engineers, the Royal Artillery, and the Rifle Brigade, have no colours, and
therefore bear their badges, devices, etc., on their appointments. Thus,
for instance, King George II. ordered the 17th Light Dragoons (now the 17th
Lancers) to wear the device of the skull and cross-bones, and beneath it
the words "or glory" on the front of their caps and on the left breast.
This device the "Death or Glory Boys" still retain, like the famous
Pomeranian Horse and the Black Brunswickers, continental corps from whom
the Anglo-Hanoverian monarch doubtless derived the idea.[51]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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