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The
Regiment
A
Short History
The life of our Regiment began in Flanders. At many times
in the last three hundred years the towns and villages of
the Low Countries have been familiar to men of the Ist Guards.
They fought in 1658, and again in 1940, against great odds,
on the road between Furnes and Dunkirk. Under the great Duke
of Marlborough they bore their part in the victories of Ramillies,
Oudenarde and Malplaquet. At Waterloo in 1815 they won their
name, a name to which great honour was added a century later
in the mud and suffering of the Western Front. In 1944 they
entered Brussels at the head of a victorious British Army.
They have returned gloriously many times to Flanders, and
in Flanders they were first formed.
In
1656 King Charles II was in exile, and England lay under
the military dictatorship of Cromwell, the Lord Protector.
In May of that year the King formed his Royal Regiment
of Guards at Bruges, under the Colonelcy of Lord Wentworth.
The Regiment was first recruited from the loyal men
who had followed their King into exile rather than live
under tyranny, and their reward came in 1660 when the
King was restored to his throne. After the Restoration,
a second Royal Regiment of Guards was formed in England
under the Colonelcy of Colonel John Russell. In 1665,
following Lord Wentworth's death, both Regiments were
incorporated into a single Regiment with twenty-four
Companies, whose royal badges or devices, given by King
Charles II, are still emblazoned on its Colours.
The Regiment, later termed "The First Regiment
of Foot Guards", and now called "The First
or Grenadier Regiment of Foot Guards", has fought
in almost every major campaign of the British Army from
that time until our own. Under the last two Stuart Kings
it fought against the Moors at Tangiers, and in America,
and even took part as Marines in the naval wars against
the Dutch.
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Guardsman in
Desert Combats
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In
the Wars of the Spanish Succession, the 1st Guards served
under a commander who had joined the King's Company of
the Regiment as an Ensign in 1667. His name was John Churchill,
first Duke of Marlborough who was Colonel of the Regiment
and who, with his brilliant victories of Blenheim (1704),
Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709),
established his reputation as one of the greatest soldiers
of all time. The 1st Guards took part in his famous march
from the Low Countries to the Danube in 1704, and when
the British stormed the fortified heights of the Schellenberg
before Blenheim, the Regiment led the assault.
In the long series of wars against France - then the chief
military power of Europe - that covered fifty-six of the
126 years between 1689 and 1815, the 1st Guards played
their part. They fought at Dettingen and Fontenoy, where
the superb steadiness of their advance under a murderous
cannonade won the admiration of both armies. Rigid attention
to detail, flawless perfection of uniform and equipment
and a discipline of steel were the hard school in which
the tempered metal of the Regiment was made for the service
of the State. Yet running through that tradition of discipline,
of harsh punishments, of undeviating rule, ran a vein
of poetry, of humour, of loyalty to comrade, of sense
of belonging to something greater than any individual,
something undying and profound. And the letters and diaries
of men of the Regiment of those days bear witness to it.
During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the 1st
Guards, crossing to Holland in 1793, were among the first
British troops to land in Europe. Driven from the Continent
two years later, they returned in 1799 when another British
Army attempted, though in vain, to liberate Holland. In
the autumn and winter of 1808 they took part in Sir John
Moore's classic march and counter-march against Napoleon
in Northern Spain and, when under the terrible hardships
encountered on the retreat across the wild Galician mountains
the tattered, footsore troops, tested almost beyond endurance,
showed signs of collapse, the 1st Foot Guards, with their
splendid marching discipline, lost fewer men by sickness
and desertion than any other unit in the Army. Subsequently
they took part in the battle of Corunna and when Sir John
Moore fell mortally wounded in the hour of victory it
was men of the 1st Foot Guards who bore him, dying, from
the field. Next year, they fought again in Spain under
one of the great Captains of history, an officer also
destined to become Colonel of the Regiment, Arthur Wellesley,
first Duke of Wellington. Under Wellesley, they took part
in the desperate engagements of the Peninsular War.
When, after the victorious peace that followed, Napoleon
escaped from Elba and re-entered Paris, the Regiment returned
to the Low Countries. In the middle of June 1815 the Emperor
struck at the British and Prussian forces north of the
Meuse, seeking to separate them and destroy them severally.
After a fierce encounter at Quatre Bras on June 16th,
1815, in which the 3rd Battalion suffered heavy casualties,
Wellington's Army withdrew to Waterloo, and on Sunday
June 18th, was fought the battle in which the Regiment
gained its present title and undying fame. During the
morning the light companies of the Guards defended the
farm of Hougoumont, the light companies of the 1st Guards
being withdrawn later to join their battalions - the 2nd
and 3rd Battalions. At evening these two battalions, together
forming the 1st Brigade, were in position behind the ridge
which gave shelter to the Army. At this point Napoleon
directed his final assault with fresh troops - the Imperial
Guard, which had hitherto been maintained in reserve.
That assault was utterly defeated, and, in honour of their
defeat of the Grenadiers of the French Imperial Guard,
the 1st Guards were made a Regiment of Grenadiers and
given the title of "First or Grenadier Regiment of
Foot Guards" which they bear to this day.
During the Crimean War, the 3rd Battalion formed part
of Lord Raglan's Army, which stormed the heights above
the River Alma and besieged the Russian fortress of Sebastopol.
During the early part of that grim siege was fought, in
November 1854, the battle of Inkerman. The defence of
the Sandbag Battery in the fog against overwhelming odds
is one of the epics of British military history. On that
day the Brigade of Guards, of which the 3rd Battalion
of the Grenadier Guards formed part, lost half its officers
and men, but not a single prisoner or an inch of ground.
The Grenadier Guards fought at Tel-el-Kebir and in the
Boer War, proving the worth of discipline and esprit de
corps in the era of khaki, machine guns and open order
as they had done under the old dispensation of muskets
and scarlet and gold. In the first Great War of 1914-18,
they fought in nearly all the principle battles of the
Western front. At First Ypres all but 4 officers and 200
men of the 1st Battalion and 4 officers and 140 men of
the 2nd fell in action.
During this war a 4th Battalion was formed for the first
time and covered itself with glory in the critical fighting
in the spring of 1918. The Marne, the Aisne, Ypres, Loos,
the Somme, Cambrai, Arras, Hazebrouck and the Hindenburgh
Line are inscribed on the Colours of the Regiment, commemorating
its part in the bloodiest war of our history. Before the
final victory was won and the German Imperial Army was
broken by Britain's new Armies, 12,000 casualties had
been suffered by the Regiment.
In 1939 the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions again returned
to the Continent, forming part of the British Expeditionary
Force under Lord Gort, himself a Grenadier. During the
retreat of 1940, the traditional discipline of the Regiment
stood the test as it had done at First Ypres, Corunna
and Waterloo. Two of its Battalions fought in the Division
then commanded by Major General, later Field Marshal,
Montgomery and another in that commanded by Major General,
later Field Marshal, Alexander. At Dunkirk, which the
Regiment had garrisoned under Charles II, it took part
in the defences of the perimeter, under cover of which
the embarkation of the Army was made. In the course of
that year the 4th Battalion was re-formed, and in 1941
two further Battalions, the 5th and 6th, were raised.
The Regiment was represented in the Eighth Army's famous
advance to Tunisia, taking part in the battle of Mareth,
where the 6th Battalion, the first to meet the enemy after
the evacuation of Dunkirk, suffered heavy casualties but
won the respect of friend and foe alike. The 3rd and 5th
Battalions shared in the invasion of North Africa; all
three Battalions were engaged in the invasion of Italy
and the Italian campaign, the 5th Battalion forming part
of the force that landed at Anzio.
Meanwhile, in England, the 2nd and 4th Battalions had
been converted to armour, and the 2nd Battalion, with
the 1st Battalion, which had become a Motor Battalion,
served in the Guards Armoured Division under the command
of Major General Allan Adair, another Grenadier, and later
to become Colonel of the Regiment. The 4th Battalion formed
part of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade. These three Battalions
fought in the battles of Normandy and across France and
Germany. In September 1944 the 1st and 2nd Battalions
entered Brussels. On September 20th tanks of the 2nd Battalion
and troops of the 1st Battalion crossed the Nijmegen Bridge.
In 1945 the Army entered Germany.
The British public most frequently sees the Grenadier
at his ceremonial duties in time of peace. But behind
this ceremony lies a tradition tested on the battlefields
of British history, a tradition as valid to-day as ever,
a tradition of discipline, comradeship, loyalty and fidelity
to one another, to the Country, and to the Crown. It was
expressed by the then Colonel of the Regiment, the Prince
Consort, speaking on the 200th anniversary of our formation
in words that remain as true over a century later. "That
same discipline which has made this Regiment ever ready
and terrible in war has enabled it to pass long periods
of peace in the midst of all temptations of a luxurious
metropolis without the loss of vigour and energy; to live
in harmony and good-fellowship with its fellow citizens;
and to point to the remarkable fact that the Household
Troops have for over 200 years formed the permanent garrison
of London; have always been at the command of the civil
power to support law and order, but have never themselves
disturbed that order, or given cause of complaint, either
by insolence or licentiousness. Let us hope that for centuries
to come these noble qualities may still shine forth, and
that the Almighty will continue to shield and favour this
little band of devoted soldiers".
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World War 2 |
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Since 1945 the Regiment has served in virtually every
one of the "small campaigns" and crises which
have marked the last few decades, and has continued
its traditional and privileged task of mounting guard
over the person of the Sovereign.
In the Gulf war of 1991, the 1st Battalion went from
the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) - Germany - to
fight in their Warrior armoured personnel carriers.
They then returned to London to Troop their Colour on
the Queen's Birthday Parade in 1992, before going to
South Armagh for a six month operational tour in Northern
Ireland.
They have since carried out operational tours in the
Falkland Isles, operational tours in Northern Ireland
and since 1 April 2000 are part of 12 Mechanised Brigade,
ready to embark on operations worldwide.
In 2001, the deployment of troops to Heathrow airport
held no surprise to see the Grenadiers, along with the
Household Cavalry, deployed in an anti-terrorist role.
Even though the year was just 5 weeks old, the Regiment
had been on Public Duties, covered for the Firemen strike
and had undertaken anti-terrorist duties.
In 2002, the Trooping the Colour Parade was somewhat
of a unique occasion as the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalion
Grenadier Guards were represented on parade by:-
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Escort - The Queen's Company
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No 2 Guard - Nijmegen Company
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No 3 Guard - the Inkerman Company
Today the Regiment consists of the First Battalion, Nijmegen
Company, 15th Company (Regimental Headquarters and the
Regimental Band), 14th Company (Guards Company - Army
Training Regiment, Pirbright) and the 13th Company (Guards
Company - Infantry Training Centre, Catterick).
The Right Flank Company of the 1st Battalion is called
the Queen's Company. The Left Flank Company is called
the Inkerman Company and retains the inherited privileges
of the 3rd Battalion.
During its 2007
operational tour in Afghanistan, the third operational tour in as many years, the First Battalion was engaged in some of the fiercest and most prolonged infantry fighting the British Army has experienced in recent times, with casualty rates approaching the level of the Second World War. The Regiment suffered 5 fatalities and 32 wounded, as well as an indeterminate number of psychiatric injuries, some of which may take over a decade to appear.
The First Battalion are currently stationed in Wellington Barracks, London.
The Battalion is warned for a further Afghan tour in 2009. |
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