Dates: 1815 -
The Grenadier Guards (GREN GDS) is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards. The Coldstream Guards were organized before the Grenadier Guards, but their regiment is reckoned after the Grenadiers in seniority as they sided with Oliver Cromwell during the civil war.
The grouping of buttons on the tunic is a common way to distinguish between the regiments of Foot Guards. Grenadier Guards’ buttons are equally spaced and embossed with the Royal Cypher reversed and interlaced surrounded by the Royal Garter bearing Honi soit qui mal y pense (Evil be to him who evil thinks ). Their “Buff Belt” brass clasped also carry the Royal Cypher, Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a "grenade fired proper" with 17 flames. This cap badge is to be cleaned twice a day once in the morning and once in the afternoon, as it is made from brass and a tarnished grenade is frowned upon by all in the regiment.
The Grenadier Guards celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2006.
In 1656, Lord Wentworth’s Regiment was formed in Bruges, in the Spanish Netherlands, currently Belgium, forming a portion of exiled King Charles II’s bodyguard. A few years later, a similar regiment known as John Russell’s Regiment of Guards was formed. In 1665, these two regiments were combined to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards. As a result of their heroic actions in fighting off the French grenadiers at Waterloo, the 1st Guards were renamed by Royal Proclamation as the 1st or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards, thus becoming the only regiment in the British Army to be named for its actions in battle. The nickname for the 2nd Battalion is the ’Models’ and for the third battalion the ’Ribbs’.
The Grenadier Guards have served 10 Kings and 3 Queens, including currently Queen Elizabeth II.
Memories of Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards, batus in 1973Written by gordon walker
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"clearing the range after live firing and the whole platoon getting blown up by tank shell,then spending time recovering in medicine hat general hospital"
Grenadier Guards, Eoka Gen Grivas in 1958Written by Anthony Robinson (Robbo)
Contact this person >> "Up on the Panhandle, surrounding a Village, at 1.30 am, about 10ft infront of me, a Male appeared, I challenged him as per regulations Halt Sturmata dur, three times was the order of the day, he turned and ran, I cocked my Bren Gun and fired in his direction I shouted put a flare up, the Man on the Mortar was also firing, and he was shouting put a flare up, by the time he realized it was up to him to do so, the flare went up, and the Man was way in the distance, 200yrds 13 seconds flat, Olympic Gold, when I started firing, it was like a full scale war, the other Lads on the far side of the Village fired towards us, the Lads on the Left and Right of us, infact everyone surrounding the Village must have emptied a Mag or two, Round Count well over a 1000 and we missed him, my first Mag was emptied 8ft infront of me in a mound, if we had of had tracer, he would have gone down within seconds of opening fire
On a road block around Dekelia, we had hand searchlights, no traffic coming for hours, we spotted hedgehogs and rabbits crossing the road infront of us, we put the searchlight on them, and they froze, we did this for quite a while, suddenly. there was a noise to our Right, we turned the searchlight that way, and spotted a Male making his way towards us at the side of a 12ft wall, again the challenge THREE TIMES, Halt Sturmata Dur, Two of us with Sterlings opened fire on him, without a word of a lie, he must have climbed the wall on our Bullets or rounds as they were, over a 12ft wall in a matter of seconds and escaped, another Olympic Gold, how the hell Cyprus did not win Medals at any of the Olympics with the Guys who we saw perform, I will never know
Again, surrounding another Village, all quiet for several hours, around Midnight, someone was coming towards us through the trees, by the noise they were making, there was a few of them, no answer to our challenge, we opened fire, this time we did not miss, we cut the enemy to shreds, well, not exactly the enemy, it was a enemies Mule, dead as a Dodo, out came our shovels, and we started to Bury it, anyone who has tried to dig a trench in certain parts of Cyprus will know how hard it was, finnaly, we were deep enough to bury it, all this was done in pitch Black circumstancies, amongst the trees, satisfied it was burried okay, we got back to our posts to carry on waiting for Daybreak, stand to, then we were able to move around, back to where we had burried Bruno as we had named him, unfortunately we had a leg stuck up in the air , due to move off in a few minutes time, no time to re-bury him, Eakin, who was one of our biggish Grens, got a Mashette, and hacked off the offending object, and stuffed it in the sand, we hoped the wild dogs would dig it up and eat it before it was dicovered full of rounds, explaing why we had opened fire, suspected enemy to the front Sir we always had to pick up and account for any empty cases of rounds we had fired, we had a stash of all caliber emptied rounds in a biscuit tin burried in a safe place
Come on no 4 Coy Grenadiers Cyprus, Nicosia Camp 1958 remember the Water Chatties, always put the lid back on when you had filled your Mug was the camp shall we say request, when it was not replaced correctly, the insects got in to the water, scooping up a Mug full of water with 9inch Centipedes and Gecko Lizards, not to mention the Ants, I said not to mention the Ants, was a work of Art, next, our wonderful Char Walla, with his Tea, Coffee and Rolls, you got your Tea and Roll, and gave him your name and last four numbers, Captain Midnight 2359, owed him quite a lot of , so did Mickey and Mighty Mouse, D Duck and a few more desired characters, at the Months end, we all had to line up whilst the Char Walla tried to recognise who owed him the money, on one occasion, one of our lads got sunburn, he went to the Char Walla to ask him a simple question, have you got any Castor Oil, no only Ham and Cheese Roils Left was his reply
We actually did capture some Eoka, and, we had to interogate them, most of them could not or stated they could not understand English, we said we were waiting for a Interpreter, and we moved several feet away from them, they started chatting to each other in Turkish and Greek, until the Interpreter turned up, then it was silence, they gave nothing away, we sent the Interpreter onto another Camp, and left the suspects smiling to each other, we then started to interogate them one by one, and after us having spoken to our other Camps Char Wallas who we has put in amongst them, we asked them some really awkward questions
Alright Lads, come on own up, who was your best Gecko Tail Collector if you grabbed a Gecko by its Tail, it came off in your hand, the Gecko so we believed grew another one over night, We had Biscuit Tins full of them, and some of them were still wriggling a few days after, when we opened up the tins and had a count up to see who had won, we saw the odd Scorpian, and ringed them with Kerosene, they ran all round trying to escape, when they found out they could not do so, they stung themselves to death, the 1inch Ants I watched for hours on end, if anyone had a Army of 5ft ones, they would conquer the World without any problems
Last but not least, we had a really great time while we were out there, saddened by our Men and Women and Children who were Murdered again with the hidden enemy, who you could not fight because you did not know who the
COWARDLY B-----Ds were, as of today were our Brave Lads and Lasses, are fighting in Afgahnistan, and you have no Idea if any of the Taliban are amongst you, if you suspect and fire at them, and you are wrong, all hell is let loose, yet they send children as Suicide Bombers to kill in the name of Allah, we the British Soldier along with all our Allies have fought the hidden enemy on thier own ground for long enough, saddly it will go on till the end of time, we believe in keeping the Peace where ever it is needed in todays World, North Korrea is the next, it would be 10 or 20 to 1 against each of us, I say us, because I feel that we old Vets are still out there with you all, backing you all the way, and wishing for you safe return."
