British Army Guards

“ Guards are peculiarly a monarchical and despotic institution, having no real existence in a Republic or similar form of government. We would esteem this force as a chosen band of faithful, stalwart, and splendidly-equipped soldiers, specially charged with the defence of the throne, and calculated, by their imposing 42array, to add lustre and dignity to the Crown. Apart from this holiday display, the history of Guards is pre-eminently distinguished by the most splendid achievements of heroism and devotion. ”

“ When he gives you his friendship, the British soldier is a good friend. Between some Regular and Territorial battalions bonds of the closest affection have been formed in the field. Thus, the gallant Hertfordshire Territorials, who wear the Hart badge of the Bedfordshire Regiment, are sworn brothers to the Guards, by reason of their being brigaded with the Guards in the famous Guards Brigade—the only non-Guards battalion in the Brigade—for many months. ”

“ All ranks have worthily upheld the high traditions of the Brigade of Guards in their first campaign, being distinguished for conspicuous bravery in many of the frequent actions against the overwhelming German forces in France and Belgium. ”

“ They inculcated a stiff and rigid discipline into the British army, and they endowed the rank and file with a moral stamina sufficient to enable them to maintain themselves on the field of battle in line, and thus develop to the fullest extent the fire of their muskets. Our enemies, not so highly trained, could only fight in column ”

“ During an emergency, men had been allowed to enlist for limited periods of service, varying from two to seven years (in the infantry) , or while hostilities lasted. This was notably the case in the reign of Queen Anne, in 1745, 1759, 1775, and 1806-1829; but unlimited service for life also ran concurrently in the army at the same time (The Army Book for the British Empire , pp. 17, 22, etc.) ”

“ Men come and go in war. The regiment remains. Its battle honours are the symbol of what it was, the promise of what it will be.
No body of troops in the British Army has redeemed the promise of its battle honours more illustriously in this war than the Guards. Marlborough, Wellington, Raglan, who saw in their careers, each in his turn, that the Guards were true to the promise of their colours, must look down from the Elysian Fields [Pg 246] in proud admiration of the way in which the Guards in this war have once more maintained the untarnished splendour of their name. ”

“ The brigade of Guards, and that of the Highlanders, consisting of the Forty-second, Seventy-ninth, and Ninety-third, under their favourite chieftain, Sir Colin Campbell, were closely allied in all the dangers and glories of the war in the First Infantry division, commanded by his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge. ”

“ The Scottish Foot Guards, raised in November, 1660, were commanded by George, Earl of Linlithgow, and were, as they are still, named Fusiliers, being armed with the fusil, a light French musket; and by the Scottish Privy Council, in their orders to the army in 1667, it was ordained that the field officers of this corps should command in chief, and give orders in field and garrison, to all troops whatsoever. In 1707 these Guards were placed upon the united British establishment ”

“ An armistice was soon agreed to between the belligerents, during which the army, now commanded by Sir Evelyn Wood, consisted of the 6th Dragoons, 15th Hussars, and a squadron of the King’s Dragoon Guards, 14 guns, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 60th, the relics of the 58th, the372 83rd, 92nd, and 97th, together with a naval brigade and some mounted infantry. Finally peace was declared, and the beleaguered garrisons were relieved.
No war of such small magnitude, as far as the numbers engaged are concerned, has left more grave results. ”

“ Nor can this be wondered at when it is considered that the battalions of the line which are stationed in the United Kingdom consist only of those which have recently returned home from the East or West Indies, or other of our colonies, in order to recruit, to refit, and reorganize, and at the end of four years to be despatched again to some foreign station. But if the household troops are exempt from taking their turn of duty in certain of the colonies, there [Pg 45] are other duties which press far more severely upon the brigade of Foot Guards than upon any other portion of the British army. ”

“ The principal duty of the home Battalion was naturally at this moment to train and supply men to the 1st Battalion in the Crimea, and we have already seen something of the quality of the drafts that were sent out to the East. [345] But as the ordinary 268recruiting was not sufficient to maintain the forces at the seat of war in a proper state of efficiency, the militia—the true reserve of the British army at that time—was called upon to perform its functions in the emergency. ”

“ Out of the 30,000 men which composed the Allied force, but 7000 were British, and these were the 3rd Dragoon Guards, the 3rd, 7th, 23rd, 28th, 29th, 31st, 34th, 39th, 48th, 57th, 60th, and 66th Regiments; and of them only 1800 men were unwounded when the fire ceased.
The Spaniards on the right were first attacked, and soon gave way, and for the rest of this short four hours’ fight, the brunt of battle lay with the British contingent. The men behaved with valour extraordinary even in those days of hard, continuous fighting ”

“ On the 24th of July a celebrated review of the Anglo-allied army, which had just been reinforced by several regiments who had come to France from America—where peace had been concluded—took place near Paris, before the Emperor of Russia and the other Allied Sovereigns. There were as many as 60,000 British soldiers present, the whole of the troops being under the command of the Duke of Wellington. ”

“ Called upon to show discipline under exceptional privations, to give proof of fortitude in extreme toil, and to show contempt of danger in battle, the General Officers, Officers, Non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of the Army have responded with zealous alacrity, adding another chapter to the long roll of British victories. ”

“ Notwithstanding this ill-omened inauguration, Guards have been perpetuated, and embraced in the military 44institutions of the several States which successively attained the dominion of the known world, especially where victorious ambition induced them to reject the simplicity of the Republic and adopt the glitter and the pomp of Imperialism. In despotic monarchies, princes have generally selected their Guards from foreigners, as less likely to be affected by the political struggles which from time to time agitated the nation and threatened the security of the throne. ”

“ The English army present at the Alma, in round numbers as stated in the official returns, consisted of 27,000 men; the French, of 25,000; the Turks, of 6,000 men. Of the English were engaged with such loss as would incapacitate the regiments from action—the Guards, the 7th, 19th, 23rd, 30th, 33rd, 47th, 55th, 95th, one wing of 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade. There remained in just as good order for marching as any of the French regiments—1st Battalion of the Royals, 4th, 79th, 44th, 21st, 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, 50th, 49th, 77th, 88th, 20th, 28th, 38th, 42nd—14 Battalions—and the cavalry ”

“ An amendment that the army in England should consist only of 7000 men, and those entirely British, was carried, and thus the Dutch guards of the king were disbanded, though apparently there were still some 12,000 men on the Irish Establishment and about 4000 on the Scotch, while there had69 been no objection to voting 15,000 men for the fleet. With this branch of our national defence there has always been greater liberality and less suspicion. ”

“ He was not himself a guardsman, but there was no trace of jealousy in his voice. I have noticed the same thing again and again. There are people who dislike the Guards, accusing them of conceit or resenting certain privileges. I never met any one who refused to give the Guards first place in battle, on the march, in camp. It is a magnificent record to have established in an army like ours, a wonderful record to have kept through a long-drawn war like this, when every regiment has been destroyed and remade of new material half a dozen times. ”

“ But battle, and, still more, disease and mismanagement, had cost the country 22,000 men. The general motto “Sebastopol” is borne on the colours or appointments of the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th Dragoon Guards, and the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 17th Cavalry Regiments, and the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 9th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, 28th, 30th, 33rd, 34th, 38th, 41st, 42nd, 44th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 62nd, 63rd, 68th, 71st, 72nd, 77th, 79th, 82nd, 88th, 89th, 90th, 93rd, 95th, and 97th Regiments of the line, the Rifle Brigade, and Guards. ”

“ You who have only seen the British soldier at his worst, that is, when he is buttoned into a tunic little removed in design from a strait-waistcoat, or when the freedom of the man has been subordinated to the lick-and-spittle polish of the dummy,—you who glory in [135] tin-casing for your Horse Guards, and would hoot the Guardsman bold enough to affect a woollen muffler,—would have opened your eyes with amazement if you could have sat on the slopes of the Houwater drift with the staff of the New Cavalry Brigade and watched the arrival of the co-operating columns to their common camping-ground. ”

“ I have been all but choked by the sour odour which the breeze has wafted over from the marching men, and have been only too glad to follow the advice of the old hands to put the wind between them and me. But these British Guardsmen, grimy and travel-stained though they were on the outside, were clean of body, and the air about them was pure. Looking at them closer, I saw that under the dust their haversacks were neatly packed and fastened, their uniform well-fitting and whole, their puttees beautifully tied. ”

“ The Brigade had now been for more than four years in North America, and the time had been passed pleasantly and profitably by all ranks. Seldom have the Guards had an opportunity of observing for themselves the life of a thriving British colony, and the development of our national energy across the ocean. ”

“ The Garde Nationale will perform police duties, and the garrison, composed of the Allied troops, occupying the great centres of the town, will remain in reserve. In case the latter have to act, for the Garde Nationale may refuse to quell disturbances, guns will be fired, when the regular forces will assemble at their alarm posts. The British brigade will form up in the Avenue de Neuilly, one battalion in Place Beauveau, and another at the junction of the Boulevard de la Madeleine and Rue St. ”

“ It is hard to tell it, and not all can be told yet because of the enemy. The Guards had their full share of the fighting, and of the difficult ground, with strong forces against them. They knew that would be so before they went into battle, and yet they did not ask for better things but awaited the hour of attack with strong, gallant hearts, quite sure of their courage, proud of their name, full of trust in their officers, eager to give a smashing blow at the enemy. ”

“ The years spent in France were useful to the British troops quartered there. It was a time when they had to be prepared for every emergency, when they had to cultivate amicable relations with a foreign people who resented deeply their presence among them, when their demeanour towards the inhabitants had to be both firm and conciliatory, and when their military efficiency and discipline could alone enable them to discharge the delicate duties with which they were entrusted. ”

“ The Young Guardsman believes himself to be not only the backbone of the British Army, its vital centre and support, but also its decorative master-piece. Other officers, of whom the Guardsman is wont to speak with a vague pity as belonging to "some line regiment," are not apt to sympathise with him in this exalted estimate of his military position and functions. They are accustomed to urge, that he is to the general body of officers as gold lace is to the uniform he wears, a gaudy ornament fashioned for show and useless for the practical work of the military profession. ”

“ It is not a creation of this war, for then surely it would have withered for lack of fertile soil, by reason of the number of original Guardsmen who have died. On the contrary, it is seen as strong and as virile as ever, even in men who abandoned their civilian pursuits to take service with the Guards. The young men of good birth who have received commissions in the Guards after the outbreak of war, and the recruits who come out with drafts—novices all, not only to the war, but also to the Guards—are saturated with this manly respect for soldierly virtues. ”

“ Since the fall of the Empire in 1870 there have been no guard troops in France. The duty of watching over the safety of the president is taken in the ordinary roster of duty by the troops stationed in the capital. The “Republican Guard” is the Paris gendarmerie, recruited from old soldiers and armed and trained as a military body.
In Austria-Hungary there are only small bodies of household troops (Archer Body Guard, Trabant Guard, Hungarian Crown Guards, &c.) analogous to the British Gentlemen at Arms or Yeomen of the Guard. ”

“ Suffice it to say that two Battalions of the Brigade (1st Grenadiers and 2nd Scots Fusilier Guards, under Major-General Lord F. Paulet) were shipped to British North America, December 19th, and remained there until the autumn of 1864. Fortunately peace was preserved, and the expedition, while watching proceedings during the civil war that was then raging 305in the States, assumed the character of a movement of troops from one part of the British Empire to another, for ordinary purposes. ”