The First Foot Guards "Grenadier Guards"
The First Foot Guards are a disciplined competitive regiment who attend 1v1's/line battles.
The Grenadier Guards trace their lineage back to 1656, when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges, in the Spanish Netherlands (current-day Belgium), where it formed a part of exiled King Charles II's bodyguard. A few years later, a similar regiment known as John Russell's Regiment of Guards was formed. In 1665, these two regiments were combined to form the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, consisting of 24 companies of men. Since then the Grenadier Guards have served ten Kings and four Queens, including currently Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout the 18th century, the regiment took part in a number of campaigns including the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment gained the name "Grenadier" in July 1815 following a Royal Proclamation. This was the result of a mistaken belief that the unit had defeated the Grenadiers of the French Imperial Guard at the Battle of Waterloo, whereas they had actually engaged the Chasseurs of the Guard, who wore bearskin caps similar to the Grenadiers of the Guard.
Wars of the Spanish Succession
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 were among the first British troops to land in Europe, crossing to Holland in 1793. Driven from the Continent two years later, they returned in 1799 when another British Army attempted, though in vain, to liberate Holland.
The Battle of Waterloo
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. The Grenade was adopted as a badge and the Bearskin Cap was worn after Waterloo.
Ranking System
Commissioned Officers
Colonel (Col)
Lieutenant Colonel (LtCol)
Major (Maj)
Captain (Cpt)
Lieutenant (Lt)
Ensign (Ens)
Non-Commissioned Officers
Serjeant Major (SjtMaj)
Colour Serjeant(CSjt)
Serjeant (Sjt)
Kingsman (Kgm)
Corporal (Cpl)
Enlisted
Lance Corporal (LCpl)
Guardsman (Gdm)
Regular (Rgl)
Regular (Rgl)
Private (Pvt)
Recruit (Rct)
