The bearskin was adopted as a headdress after the Battle of Waterloo

Posted in Famous battles, Historical articles, History, Royalty on Monday, 22 April 2013

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This edited article about the British army originally appeared in Look and Learn issue number 230 published on 11 June 1966.

Grenadier's bearskin, picture, image, illustration

Grenadier Guards; Officer's Full Dress Bearskin, 1875

To the sound of massed bands, the Queen’s Foot Guards in their scarlet tunics march across Whitehall parade ground first at slow march then in quick time, followed by the Horse Guards and the Life Guards, their red and white plumes flying as they walk and trot their shining black mounts.

Taking the salute, as she does every June on her official birthday, sits the Queen. This is the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony. For displays of splendour and tradition such as this, the Foot Guards wear tall black bearskins, a headdress which belongs only to the five regiments which make up the Queen’s Brigade of Guards – the Grenadier, the Coldstream, the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh Guards.

The bearskin consists simply of fur, nowadays imported from Canada or Russia, stretched over a light bamboo frame. It was originally worn only by about a quarter of the men in every regiment.

These men were the “grenadiers,” strong and brave soldiers chosen specially for the task of grenade-throwing. The position of the grenadiers on the field was important, and the commanders were able to distinguish them more easily by their bearskins. The remainder of the regiment wore a shako, a kind of cone-shaped cap.

It was at the Battle of Waterloo, on June 18, 1815, that the whole of the First Regiment of Foot Guards won the right to wear the bearskin, when they fought a crucial action against the grenadiers of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, who also wore the bearskin. After the battle, to mark the victory, the entire regiment was permitted to adopt this headdress – and the First Regiment of Foot Guards was renamed the Grenadier Guards. Later, to bring uniformity to the Brigade of Guards, the other four regiments adopted the bearskin.

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