Genealogy Chat

Thank you all very, very much for your information. I've been trying to handle my dad's affairs (he's in the hospital) for the past several weeks and in order to keep my sanity, even though I don't really have time to visit GC, I've started reading some of the messages -- it's a way of escaping the stress for a bit. I shall print out all of the information you have given me. I've always enjoyed learning history and especially something to do with the British Isles or Canada. Thank you so much, Lisa.

Just another bit of information regarding the Guards regiments. Grenadiers became so after the battle of Waterloo when the defeated the French Gendarmerie. they knicked the bearskin and the Grenade from the French then changed their name to Grenadiers. Also, the 5 guards regiments wear different coloured plumes on their bearskins to be recognisable on the field of battle. Grenadiers wear white plume on the left, Coldstreamers wear red plume on the right, Scots wore none as they were always formed in the middle, Irish wear St. Patricks blue on the right and the Welsh wear white and green on the left.

In the British army there were 3 regiments of Horse Guards they were - 1st Life Guards - 2nd Life Guards - Royal Horse Guards. There are 5 regiments of Foot Guards 1st or Grenadier Guards (1656) recruited from South of England. 2nd or Coldstream Guards (1650) recruited fron the North of England 3rd or Scots Guards (1661) 4th or Irish Guards (1900) 5th or Welsh Guards (1915) before 1881 all county infantry regiments were know as 'Regiment of foot' 1st regiment of foot 'The Royals' or Royal Scots 2nd Regiment of foot 'The Queens' or West Surrey 13th Regiment of foot or Somerset Light Infantry Each infantry regiment had a Grenadier Company, this company was usually made up with the tallest men and were often armed with grenades. Just going back to the Guards regiments you can tell which regiment a guardsman belongs to by the spacing of his buttons, in singles gernadier, in pairs coldstream, in 3s Scots, in 4s Irish, in 5s Welsh Hope this is of help Malcolm

In some ways the term stems from when regiments were formed by individuals, Lords and Barons etc. At that time some of them would have been providing the weapons and equipment for the men, while others would have asked the men to provide their own if possible. Where horses were available, the "regiment" would possibly have been split into "foot soldiers" and "horse soldiers", who were later known as Cavalry. Some modern day units still include the term "Foot" in their title. Paul

The first few foot guards were Grenadier but I had a relative in the 33 foot and that was a Yorkshire regiment. The 48 Foot was a Northants regiment and the 16 foot was not Grenadier guards either. I am not totally sure what no. the foot guards go up to but they certainly go into the 50's. The foot guards were the ones who were literally on foot fighting the main action. They stood close together to help with the defence. Janet

The Grenadier guards are known as 'the 1st of foot', the Coldstream guards as '2nd of foot' I think it is something to do with the order in which they were formed and 'foot' as opposed to 'horse'

Thanks very much, Kathleen. I'm trying to do three things at once and didn't even think of google! I shall try that later tonight. Thanks for your help. :~)

The old name for Grenadier Guards in the army. Type foot-guards into google - quite a bit comes up.

As I was rereading some photocopied register pages from Sussex, saw "a private in the Foot-Guards", dated April 1798. Would anyone know what that is? It isn't concerning my ancestor, just curious. Thank you, Lisa