Grenadier Guards Quotes

The losses in the Dervish ranks were horrendous as whole families and tribal groups were wiped out. No European army would have dreamed of facing such a wall of fire, but still they came on.

Something that concerned the officers of the entourage, which they hid from the General in order not to complete his mortification, was that the hussars and grenadiers of the guard were sowing the fiery seed of an immortal gonorrhea.

Eleven years in the Grenadier Guards had taught him the value of displaying total, unquestioning loyalty to the chain of command. Sometimes, albeit rarely, it was genuine. More often, it was for display purposes only.

Upstairs, on the balcony, the chairs are laid out for one of the most extraordinary – though invisible – rituals of a Palace banquet. In a tradition harking back to the medieval custom of royal meals as public entertainment, two dozen people will have tickets to sit behind the Band of the Grenadier Guards and simply watch the banquet. The ‘audience’ will be made up of members of staff, each of whom can bring a guest, and it’s always extremely popular as the ‘audience’ have dinner thrown in. However, once seated no one is allowed to budge for the best part of two hours.

When Warner saw Francis’s line give way, he knew the battle was lost. He lost his normally stoic equanimity and “poured out a torrent of execrations upon the flying troops.” But with his right flank and rear crumbling under pressure from Riedesel’s Germans and Acland’s grenadiers attacking his left with help from Lindsay’s light infantry detachment as they reached the ridge, Warner regained his composure and yelled for his men to “scatter and meet me in Manchester.”129