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Yeomen Warders
[picture 01] [picture 02]
[picture 03]
BeefeaterThe guards at the Tower of London are called Yeoman Warders.
In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at
the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice
they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own
right. There are twelve Yeomen Warders.
While their role is usually confined to the Tower of London, the
Yeomen Warders do take part in one State ceremony. At Coronations,
they form a guard of honour inside the annexe at Westminster Abbey.
Their nickname is Beefeater.
Where does the name Beefeater originate from?
The name Beefeaters is often thought to come from the French word -
'buffetier'. (Buffetiers were guards in the palace of French kings.
They protected the king's food.) However, the name Beefeater is more
likely to have originated from the time when the Yeomen Warders at the
Tower were paid part of their salary with chunks of beef. This took
place right up until the 1800s.
Yeomen of the Guard
The Queen's Body Guard, known as the Yeomen of the Guard, are a
bodyguard of the British Monarch. There are 73 Yeomen of the Guard,
all of whom are former officers and sergeants of the British Services.
It is the oldest of the Royal bodyguards and the oldest military corps
in existence in Britain.
[picture 04]
Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role. They accompany
the Sovereign at the annual Royal Maundy Service, investitures and
summer Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, and so on. Their most
famous duty is to 'ceremonially' search the cellars of the Palace of
Westminster prior to the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that
dates back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to
blow up Parliament.
The History of the Yeoman Warders and the Yeoman of the Guards.
The Yeomen of the Guard were formed in 1485 by King Henry VII. After
his victory at the Battle of Bosworth, he gathered a group of soldiers
together to become his personal bodyguard together and they
accompanied him wherever he went as his nearest guard.
The Yeoman Warders were formed by Henry VIII. In 1509, Henry VIII
decided to leave twelve of his old sick and infirm Yeomen behind in
the Tower to protect it. He took the remainder of the bodyguard away
with him. The twelve he left are origins of the Yeomen Warders who
guard the Tower still today. They are different from the Yeomen of the
Guard, who accompany the Queen on state occasions and are the Queen's
personal bodyguards.
The Uniform
State Dress Uniform
Both the Yeomen of the Guard and the Yeomen Warders are best known for
their scarlet and gold State dress uniforms which date from 1552 and
are worn on state occasions. The uniform consists of a knee-length
scarlet tunic, scarlet knee-breeches and stockings, and a round
brimmed hat called a Tudor bonnet. Queen Elizabeth I introduced the
distinctive white neck ruff.
The State dress uniforms of Yeomen of the Guard are almost identical
to those of the Yeomen Warders, but the Yeomen of the Guard can be
distinguished by their cross belts worn from the left shoulder.
[picture 04]
Yeomen of the Guard (Beefeaters) wearing the ceremonial uniform
Close up of uniformThe uniforms of the Yeoman of the Guard and Yeoman
Warders include the thistle, rose and shamrock, emblems of Scotland,
England and Ireland.
[picture 05]
Find out more about the emblems
The initials ER on the their uniforms stand for Elizabetha Regina
(Regina is latin for queen). The initials refer to Elizabeth the
Second, who is the present Queen
BeefeaterFor everyday duties, Yeomen Warders wear a red and dark blue
undress uniform.
Yeomen Warders working at the Tower of London, are usually seen
wearing the blue undress uniform (pictured left) granted to them by
Queen Victoria in 1858.
This uniform also bears the initials of the Sovereign.
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