British life and culture - England, Scotland and Wales

Beefeaters in London, England

Woodlands Junior School is in the south-east corner of England

Yeomen Warders

State dress uniform Normal everyday uniform

The 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.

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.
 Searching the cellars of the Palace of Westminster

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.

Yeoman of the Guard

The uniforms of the Yeoman of the Guard

and Yeoman Warders include the thistle,
rose and shamrock, emblems of
Scotland, England and Ireland.

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

For 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.
In A.D. 1066, after the death of Edward The Conqueror, king of England,
a man by the name of William The Conqueror asserted his right to rule
England. William was Edward’s cousin, and lived in Normandy, France. He
was a vassal, or lord to the king of France, and had many vassals, or
lords under himself in Normandy. In A.D. 1066, after the death of Edward
The Conqueror, king of England, a man by the name of William The
Conqueror asserted his right to rule England. William was Edward’s
cousin, and lived in Normandy, France. He was a vassal, or lord to the
king of France, and had many vassals, or lords under himself in No

rmandy. Using his influence,

William gathered an army of 6,000 soldiers, which he used to conquer
England. After placing himself on the throne, he rewarded his vassals
from Normandy with the lands of many of the English nobles.

William the Conqueror began to raise funds by enacting a tax on his

people. In order to find out how much he could tax them, he established a
census. This census was very thorough and counted everything in the
kingdom, down to the last chicken.

Legend says that the kingdom and the Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever
leave the fortress.

It was Charles II, according to the stories, who first insisted that the ravens of the Tower
should be protected.

This was against the wishes of his astronomer, John Flamsteed, who complained that the
ravens impeded the business of his observatory in the White Tower.
Despite their having one wing clipped, some ravens do in fact go absent without leave and
others have had to be sacked.

Raven George was dismissed for eating television aerials, and Raven Grog was last seen
outside an East