Grenadier Guards

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Grenadier Guards
Image:Grenadier-Guards-Cap-Badge.jpg Cap Badge of the Grenadier Guards
Active	1656-present
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Army
Type	Foot Guards
Role	Light Role (one battalion) Public Duties (one company)
Size	One battalion One company
Part of	Guards Division
Garrison/HQ	RHQ - London 1st Battalion - Aldershot Nijmegen Company - London
Nickname	The Bill Browns
Motto	Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame to he who thinks evil of it) (French)
March	Quick: The British Grenadiers Slow: Scipio
Battles/wars	Waterloo
Commanders
Colonel in Chief	HM The Queen
Colonel of the Regiment	HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
Insignia
Tactical Recognition Flash	Image:Guards TRF.PNG

The Grenadier Guards 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.

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. Modern Grenadier Guardsmen wear a cap badge of a "grenade fired proper".

1 History
2 Role
3 Battle honours
4 Training
5 Colonels-in-Chief
6 Marches
7 Order of Precedence
8 Alliances
9 Footnotes
10 References
11 See also
12 External links

History

The Grenadier Guards celebrated its 350th anniversary in 2006.

In 1656, Lord Wentworth's Regiment was formed in the Spanish Netherlands, 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 one of its battle honours.

Role

The Grenadier Guards serves as a light infantry battalion - following the reforms of 2004, this will be fixed. The regiment will alternate with the Welsh Guards in the public duties role. The 1st Battalion is currently deployed as part of Operation TELIC in Iraq, and will deploy to Afghanistan in 2007.

Battle honours

Image:Grenadier Guards.jpg

Illustration, 1889

The 1st Foot Guards have received 79 battle honours, including:

various actions near the Strait of Gibraltar
the War of the Spanish Succession, including Oudenarde
the War of the Austrian Succession
the Peninsular War
the Napoleonic Wars, including Waterloo
the Crimean War
the Urabi Revolt
the Opium Wars
the Sudan Campaign
the Boer Wars
World War I and World War II (North Africa, Italy, Northwest Europe)
the Persian Gulf War

In 1994, under the Options for Change reforms, the Grenadier Guards was reduced to a single battalion. The 2nd Battalion was put into 'suspended animation', and its colours passed for safekeeping to a newly formed independent Company, which was named "The Nijmegen Company".(The Inkerman Company represents the 3rd Battalion that went into 'suspended animation' back in 1962).

Training

Recruits to the Grenadier Guards go through a 26-week training course at the Infantry Training Centre. This is 2 weeks more than the training for regular line regiments of the British Army; the extra training, carried out throughout the course, is devoted to drill and ceremonies.

Following graduation from the ITC, guardsmen are assigned to Nijmegen Company for additional training and orientation before being posted to a rifle company.

Colonels-in-Chief

Image:Stjamessentry.jpg

Sentry of the Grenadier Guards outside St James's Palace

The Grenadier Guards' various colonels-in-chief have generally been the British monarchs, including Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, George VI, and Elizabeth II.

Many prestigious military officers have been colonels of this regiment, including:

The Colonel-in-Chief is always the reigning Sovereign. This applies to all Regiments of the Household Division.

Marches

The Regimental Slow March is the march Scipio, from the opera of the same name by George Frideric Handel, inspired by the exploits of the Roman General Scipio Africanus. The first performance of Scipio was in 1726. Handel actually composed the eponymous slow march for the First Guards, presenting it to the regiment before he added it to the score of the opera.^[1] The Quick March is The British Grenadiers.

Order of Precedence

Preceded by: First in Order of Precedence of the infantry	Infantry Order of Precedence	Succeeded by: Coldstream Guards

Alliances

Footnotes

^ Hanning, Henry (2006). The British Grenadiers: Three Hundred & Fifty Years of the First Regiment of Foot Guards 1656-2006. page 80: Pen and Sword Books Ltd, London. ISBN 1-84415-385-1.

References

Hanning, Henry (2006). The British Grenadiers: Three Hundred & Fifty Years of the First Regiment of Foot Guards 1656-2006. Pen and Sword Books Ltd, London. ISBN 1-84415-385-1.