The Brigade of Guards is divided into three regiments - the Grenadier, of three battalions; the Coldstream of two; and the Scots, also of two.  All have their regimental headquarters at the "Horse Guards".

The Grenadiers, though ranking first in army seniority, are not the oldest of the three; but by Chsrles II's own order. this "Our own regiment of foot guards shall be held and esteemed the oldest regiment".  In 1665 the sons of Charles I joined the Spaniards against the alliance between Cromwell and the King of France, and raised from their followers a "Royal Regiment of Guards".  This, after being once disbanded and re-established, and doing duty at Dunkirk until it was sold to the French in 1662, was united that year to another regiment of Royal Guards, raised in England in 1660 by Colonel John Russell, twelve companies strong, partly of musketeers and partly of pikemen, to form the "1st Regiment of Foot Guards".

The uniform was scarlet with blue facings, and blue breeches and stockings; with corslets, which were for captains gilt, lieutenants polished steel, and ensigns silver plate.  The head-dress was a plumed hat; but the pikemen wore buff coats and pot helmets.  Each company then carried a colour, on which was borne the company badge - a distinction peculiar to the Guards.

At first it had only one grenadier company, and the regimental badge - the grenade - was not added until many years after; but at no time apparently was the whole regiment composed of "grenadiers" trained to use the hand grenade.  As a matter of fact the name was only given after 1815, when they had defeated the French Grenadiers at Waterloo; after which the bearskin of the grenadier company was adopted by the entire regiment, and the "grenade" replaced the former badge of "royal cypher and crown".

Active service began early.  The Grenadiers fought in Tangiers and in the American "plantations"; on board ship against de Ruyter, and against Monmouth at Sedgemoor; at Steenkirk and Namur with William III, and in the campaigns under Marlborough, when they furnished the "forlorn hope" at Schellenberg, and gained the right to begin their distinguished battle roll with the names of Blenheim (where they lost a third of their strength), Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet.  There were detachments, too, serving elsewhere.  Some were at Vigo, both in 1702 and 1712; others at Gibraltar in 1704 and 1729; and at Barcelona and Almanza the Grenadiers were represented.  They were present at Dettngen, and, though the name is not on the battle list, at the disaster of Fontenoy; about which is told of them the story of their encounter with the French Guards, when Lord Charles Hay, who commanded them, raising his hat, called out, "Gentlemen of the French Guard, fire!" and on their politely declining to do so, fire was opened by the British Guards, and the whole of the first rank of their adversaries was swept away.  Also (after steel instead of wooden ramrods had been issued to them) they showed devoted bravery at St Cas, in 1758, covering the embarkation of the rest of the force with awful loss.

The Guards alone have the name "Lincelles" among their honours.  It was in 1793, when serving in the Netherlands under Lake, that they were thanked in general orders for their "gallantry and intrepidity" in storming the enemy's works, and won this distinction.  At Corunna the 1st and 3rd battalions assisted to win the victory that lent a single gleam of light to the gloom of that disastrous retreat; and at Barossa part of the 2nd battalion joined in the gallant defence of 4,000 British soldiers against about 10,000 French.  The two other battalions successively returned to the seat of war, and formed the "1st Brigade of Guards", and though weakened at first by fever, they were present at San Sebastian, St Marcial, the Bidassoa, Nive, Nivelle, and the Adour, as well as at the investment of Bayonne, richly deserving the right to bear "Peninsula" as the next in the list of honours.  Meanwhile, the 2nd battalion had, after Barossa, served under Sir Thomas Graham at Bergen op Zoom.

In the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo the 2nd and 3rd battalions, under Sir Peregrine Maitland, shared, as the 1st Brigade of Guards, and held the ridge behind Hougoumont, where they remained until the probably mythical order , "Up Guards, and at them!" was issued, and the Guards of the two nations met in the fierce conflict of a bayonet charge, one result of which was the surrender of General Cambronne to Lord Saltoun, who, with two light companies of the brigade, had assisted in the defence of Hougoumont.  The 2nd and 3rd battalions lost about half their strength in killed and wounded during this battle.

The next campaign which added to their list of laurels was that in the Crimea, when the 3rd battalion represented the regiment, and in the year 1854-55 lost 580 killed and wounded.  Their gallant bearing at the Alma, at Inkerman, and at Sebastopol, is part of our national history, and the opinion expressed, it is said, by Sir Colin Campbell at the former battle, when someone suggested they should fall back before the decimating fire, that "Better every man of Her Majesty's Guards should be dead upon the field than turn their backs to the enemy", will be echoed by every officer and man of the brigade.  Such an opinion was worthy of the brave men to whom it applied.  Sir Charles Russell, Private Palmer, Sergeant Ablett, and Colonel Percy, won the Victoria Cross in this campaign.

Of lat years their services have been less important.  The 1st battalion embarked for Canada after the "Trent affair"; the 2nd took part in the campaign in Egypt in 1882, in the brigade commanded by the Duke of Connaught, and was present at the battles which culminated in the decisive victory of Tel-el-Kebir; detachments fought in the Bayuda desert "with the same spirit as their predecessors had displayed in former days"; and the last battle name they bear on their colours is that of Suakim in 1885, where the 3rd battalion shared in the very arduous work of an unsatisfactory campaign.

Each battalion carries two colours - the Queen's, of crimson; the regimental, the Union with distinctive devices.  The Guards have the peculiarity of wearing company badges, of which there are thirty, twenty four of which were granted by Charles II, the remainder by Her Majesty.  These badges are the royal crest, Tudor rose, fleur-de-lis, portcullis, white rose and golden sun, thistle, harp, red dragon, white greyhound with golden collar and chain, the sun in splendour, unicorn, antelope, royal hart couchant, silver falcon, red rose, white swan, eagle and sceptre, stock of a tree (Woodstock), sword and sceptre crossed, Boscobel oak, sun in clouds, blazing beacon, crossed plumes, silver hart from a triple turreted portal of gold, cross of St George on silver shield, Lion of Nassau, Order of Bath, crest of Old Saxony, shamrock, and the crest of the Prince Consort.  The 17th and 26th companies  claim as their mottoes, "Vivat Prudentia Regnans" and "Je Maintiendrai".

The uniform is scarlet with blue facings, and the bearskin carries a white plume.  Their ancient nickname is "The Sandbags", and because of an old privilege to work in plain clothes in the coal trade, "The Coalheavers"; it was to the practical experience so gained that their superiority as diggers in the trenches in the sieges in Flanders was attributed.  The title "Old Eyes" is more obscure.

On Sentry at the Tower over the Colours of the 3rd Grenadier Guards (1896)

The Drum-Major of the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards. (1896)

How Drummer Harry Vincent Penn Won The D.C.M. At The first Battle of Ypres 

            Soon after dawn on the morning of October 30^th 1914, the German artillery began a tremendous bombardment of the ridge of Zandvoorde, held by the 3^rd Cavalry Division under General Byng.  Before long the immense weight of gunfire had rendered the British trenches untenable, one troop being buried alive, and the whole division was obliged to fall back to the ridge of Klein-Zillebeke on the north, its retirement involving that of the right of the 7^th Division, which found itself uncovered.  This position Genera Byng, with the assistance of the Scots Greys and the 3^rd and 4^th Hussars, who were sent to reinforce him, succeeded in holding till the evening, when the 4^th (Guards) Brigade from the 2^nd Division arrived and took over the line.            The situation at this juncture was most critical for, if the Germans succeeded in reaching the Ypres-Comines Canal at any point north of Hollebeke, they would speedily cut the communications of the 1^st Corps holding the salient, and nothing would lie between them and Ypres itself.  On relieving the hard-pressed cavalry, the Guards lost no time in digging themselves in, a task of unusual difficulty, since the ground hereabouts was very rocky.  The strength of their defences was soon to be tested to the uttermost, for scarcely had the day begun to break when they were subjected to a fierce bombardment from the enemy’s heavy guns, and “Jack Johnson’s” and “coal boxes” followed one upon another in an endless procession.  What artillery we had at this part of the line was concealed in the wood behind the ridge, but they were light field guns, which, however useful against attacking infantry, could do but little to keep down the bombardment.  The German gunners, not content with battering the trenches to pieces, had established a barrage of fire between our firing line and its supports; and the telephone wires laid between the trenches and Brigade Headquarters were cut again and again.  So repeatedly did this occur in the case of the 2^nd Grenadier Guards, that is was found necessary to send messages by hand, and a brave drummer of that battalion, Harry Vincent Penn, undertook this most dangerous duty. In order to reach his destination, Pen had first to traverse an open field, where huge craters made by the enemy’s shells yawned on every side, their number being added to almost every side, their number being added to almost every minute; then to pass through a farm, the buildings of which were fast crumbling into ruin, and, crossing the road leading to Zillebeke, make his way for some fifty yards along a ditch and across an open ploughed field into the Zillebeke Wood.  This wood was the most dangerous part of the whole journey, since it was being simply raked by the fire of the enemy’s artillery, which was searching for our cleverly concealed guns.  After leaving the wood, Penn had before him another stretch of open ground, which brought him to Brigade Headquarters.  The brave lad made this journey several times that critical day, crawling or running where the ground afforded no cover, and though shells were bursting all about him, on each occasion he came unscathed through the fiery ordeal.   The bombardment of the Guards trenches continued almost without intermission until dusk, by which time there were, in many places, nothing but a heap of debris and mangled bodies.  Then the German infantry began to advance, and the order ran down the line that the position was to be held at all costs-to the every last man!  Our men fired till their rifles were almost too hot to hold, and then, with bayonets fixed, awaited the oncoming hordes.  But the fire of the field guns in the wood, combined with that from the trenches, had been too much for the Huns, and just as the attack looked most dangerous, it melted suddenly away.  Drummer Pennn’s Gallantry was not allowed to go without due recognition, and at the age of seventeen, he found himself the proud possessor of the Distinguished Conduct Medal.  He hails from the Midlands, his home being at Barford, Warwickshire. Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'

How Sergeant Albert John Mills, Of The 1^st Battalion, Grenadier Guards Won The D.C.M. At Kruseik

  Early in the morning of October 29^th 1914, a German wireless message was intercepted, from which we learned that the enemy were preparing for a cumulative attack upon our whole line; and shortly afterwards the Germans advanced in great force against the centre of the line held by the 1^st Corp, the principal point of attack being the cross roads about a mile east of Gheluvelt.  During the past few days, the troops opposed to us had been chiefly new formations, but now we had to deal with some of the best of the German Army-the 15^th and 13^th Corps and the 2^nd Bavarian Corps-who, though mown down in swaths by our fire, came on in such numbers and with such determination that the 1^st Division were driven from their trenches north of the cross roads, while further to the south the right of the 7^th Division was forced back from the Kruseik ridge.  Our men counter attacked in the most dashing manner, and in the fighting around Kruseik the 1^st Grenadier Guards and the 2^nd Gordon Highlanders from the 20^th Brigade were conspicuous for the gallantry of their charges.  It was during one of these charges that a party of about 100 men of the 1^st Grenadiers, having advanced too far, found themselves in danger of being cut off and surrounded by the enemy.  A volunteer was called for to go back and bring up reinforcements, and a young non-commissioned officer, Sergeant Albert John Mills, at once offered his services.  It was a most hazardous undertaking, for the ground over which he had to pass was being very heavily shelled by the enemy, with the object of preventing reinforcements being sent up.  But, though shells were continually bursting all about him, he reached our support trenches in safety, only to learn that there were no reinforcements available.  Mills had therefore to continue his journey to Battalion Headquarters, where he explained the situation to his commanding officer, who ordered a company, which was waiting there in reserve, to accompany him.  He guided them to the place where he had left his hard-pressed comrades, whom the succeeded in rescuing from their perilous position.  By two o’clock that afternoon the enemy had begun to give way, and before darkness fell the 7^th Division had recaptured the Kruseik ridge, while the ground which we had lost north of the crossroads had also been regained, with the exception of one part to which the Germans still clung.  Our losses had been heavy but those of the enemy far exceeded them; and in one spot where they had been caught by the concentrated fire of our massed machine guns their dead lay in heaps.  Further south, their attacks upon our 3^rd Corps at Le Gheir and in the Ploegsteert Wood were also repulsed, with heavy loss; and altogether it was a very costly day for the Kaiser’s legions. Sergeant Mills who for his gallantry and devotion to duty was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, is a Gloucestershire man, born at Cheltenham twenty-three years ago.  He is married , and his home is at Chelsea Barracks. Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'  

How Private Cooney, OF The 2^nd Grenadier Guards, Won The D.C.M. At Ypres

 Until August 1914, it was assumed that in warfare stretcher-bearers were immune from all risks save the unintentional.  They might be hit in the course of their merciful work by shells or bullets meant for the active forces, but civilized armies refrained from firing purposely on those employed in carrying away the wounded. The Great War, however, with the new German code of military ethics, brought the poor stretcher-bearer into the vale of sorrows.  His risks are multiplied a hundredfold, both because the entire area of a modern action is incessantly swept by shellfire, which does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants, and because the Germans deliberately aim at making the recovery of wounded an exceedingly difficult task.  Stretcher-bearers have laid their lives in thousands in this war, and there arduous work has been frequently recognized by the grant of a distinction such as came to Private Cooney, of the stretcher-bearer section of the 2^nd Grenadier Guards.  He left for the front a fortnight after his regiment, but arrived in time to take part in the perilous retreat from Mons.  He was present at the stubborn tussle on the Aisne, and then moved with his regiment to the region of Ypres, when the great German attempts to hack they way through to Calais began about the 20^th of October.  The next day, October 21^st, attempt began with heavy attack to the east of Ypres.  The Germans massed in their usual close formation made a desperate attack on the trenches of the 2^nd Grenadiers, which formed a line through a small wood on the left and had the shelter of two hedges on the right.  In font were a large farmhouse and two smaller houses.  The enemy’s charge carried them almost up to the trenches of the Guards, but there unable to stand the withering fire; they broke and retired in all haste.  The Guards, seeing them waver, sprang from their shelter and charged.  Cooney and the other stretcher-bearer followed up behind, for the German artillery immediately intervened with heavy shrapnel fire to protect their own retreating forces and prevent the British advance.

            In a few minutes there were many casualties and Cooney was soon busy.  He and another stretcher-bearer carried several wounded men into one of the houses, though it must have seemed a miracle.  Dodging shrapnel bullets is as impracticable as dodging raindrops.  Cooney was, of course, unarmed, and his sole badge of office was his white armlet with the red letters “S.B.”  Once upon a time, before the Germans came, those magic letters meant a certain of safety for their wearers, who were respected by the foe.  But times have changed. To and fro went Cooney ad his helper between the house and the sodden fields with their burden of dead and wounded.  Bur at length the inevitable happened.  Cooney was struck in the left arm.  The pain was intense, and for a moment he gave himself up for lost.  Then discipline and courage told, and he resumed his work, his left arm limp at his side.  A few minutes later he was hit again, this time in the chest.  He dropped at once, and overcome by pain and exhaustion, waited for what seemed his inevitable end. And then the old hero’s though that man is master of his fate, and that he lay among men in worse plight than himself, drove away his pain, fatigue and apprehension, and spurred him on to further effort.  He picked himself up and roughly bandaged his wounds.  Then, slowly and in great anguish, he and his companion went on with their work, bandaging the wounded, picking them up and carrying them slowly and carefully to the ruined house.  His moral strength sustained him when physical strength had departed, or he would never have survived that day. As it was, Private Cooney lived to learn that ha very gallant conduct had not passed unnoticed.  Even before he was again wounded, not long after, he learned he had been recommended for the Distinguished Conduct Medal, and the honour was soon bestowed on one who had every title to it. Extracted from 'Deeds That Thrill The Empire'  

How Private Robert Green, Of The 1^st Battalion Grenadier Guards, Won The D.C.M. At Ypres

    A Magnificent example of that dogged pluck and endurance for which the British soldier is famous the world over was given by Private Robert Green, of the King’s Company, 1^st Battalion Grenadier Guards, during the murderous fighting round Ypres, in the last days of October 1914.

            About seven o’clock on the morning of October 28^th some 150 officers and men of Private Green’s battalion, who with some companies of the Gordon Highlanders and the Black watch had pushed their advance to a considerable distance beyond the British first line trenches, found themselves practically isolated in a trench which they had hasyily constructed to defend themselves, and in a most alarming position.  Facing them at a distance of not more than one hundred and fifty yards was a German trench, packed with men, who opened a furious fusillade every time a Guardsman showed his head above the parapet.  Some two hundred yards away on their left front, a machine gun mounted in the attic of a detached house, which the enemy had occupied spat death amongst them; while less than two miles off, the Germans could be plainly discerned coming up in thousands.  From the Gordon’s and Black Watch, who were in the open some way in their rear, they could expect no assistance, for the ground which lay between them was swept by the enemy’s fire, and already the Highlanders had been obliged to fall back, leaving the level plain strewn with their dead and dying.   It was a critical situation; but the British Grenadiers have never shrunk from a fight against odds however heavy, and they continued to hold on to their trench with grim determination.

           Officer sand men however were falling fast.  Almost at Private Green’s feet, Captain Lord Richard Wellesley-a worthy descendant of the “Iron Duke”-lay dead, with his head and shoulders propped against the parapet of the trench; a little to his left, gallant Major Stucley had fallen, to rise no more.  Presently Private Green himself was hit by a bullet in the left shoulder, the wound, though not of a serious character, causing him excruciating pain.  An officer, seeing what had happened, ordered him to go and have it attended to’ but, for the first time since he had joined the Army Private Green disobeyed orders.  He knew that, in the desperate position in which they were placed, every man was needed, every rifle shot was of incalculable value; and he was resolved to “stick it” as long as he could stand and see.  And so when the officer passed on, the brave fellow returned to his post, and, notwithstanding the agony he was enduring, proceeded to fire with his right hand, until after two hours heavy fighting, the enemy, by sheer weight of numbers, obliged the whole British line to fall back and occupied our trenches.  The lost trenches were regained the following day by a dashing counter attack in the course of which however, the 1^st Grenadier Guards suffered severely, their commanding officer being wounded and taken prisoner and the second in command and another officer killed.  Private Green, who had already been recommended for the courage and coolness he had shown in acting as observer in a trench, under heavy artillery and rifle fire, during the action at Kruiseik a few days previously, was awarded the D.C.M., “for conspicuous gallantry in remaining in the firing line after being wounded, although ordered away”; and in August 1915, he received a further tribute to his bravery, in the form of the Russian Cross of St. George (3^rd Class).  Private Green is a native of Gloucestershire, and was born at Gatherington, near Cheltenham, on January 7^th 1887.

ANTHONY PALMER  (Private, afterwards Captain 3^rd Essex R.V.)  3^rd Battalion Grenadier Guards            Decorated for his bravery at Inkerman on November 5^th 1854, when he followed Sir Charles Russell, V.C., into the Sandbag Battery.  Was also present when the charge was made in defence of the Colours.  It is stated that Private Palmer saved the life of Sir Charles Russell by killing the Russian who was about to bayonet him.  His Victoria Cross is now in the United Service Institute, London.

THE HONOURABLE HENRY HUGH MANVERS PERCY  (Colonel, afterwards Lord Percy)  Grenadier Guards            On November 5^th 1854 at the battle of Inkerman, Colonel Percy charged alone far ahead of his men into the Sandbag Battery, which was at the time strongly held by the enemy, who kept up a heavy fire of musketry.  On the same day hr found himself, with many soldiers of various regiments who had charged too far, almost surrounded by the Russian.  Without ammunition and exposed to severe fire from the enemy, their position was most precarious, but Colonel Percy, by his knowledge of the ground and skilful leading, brought the men to where fresh ammunition could be obtained, and they were able to continue the fight.  H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge signified his approbation of his gallant conduct on the spot.

SIR CHARLES RUSSEL, BART  (Brevet-Major, afterwards Lieut. –Colonel)  Grenadier Guards            On November 5^th 1854, at the battle of Inkerman, Sir Charles Russell offered to dislodge a party of Russians from the Sandbag Battery if any one would follow him.  His call was quickly answered, Sergeant Norman V.C., Privates Anthony Palmer, V.C., and Bailey being the first.  Bailey was killed, but under the courageous leadership of Sir Charles Russell the attack proved a complete success, the enemy being driven from their position.

Trafalgar- The Destruction of The Bucentaure by Ivan Berryman. (PC)