The Grenadier | |
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General information | |
Address | 18 Wilton Row |
Town or city | London |
Country | England |
Coordinates | 51°30′05″N0°09′18″W / 51.5014°N 0.1549°W |
Estimated completion | 1720 |
Website | |
www |
The Grenadier is a public house in Belgravia, London. It was originally built in 1720 as the officers' mess for the senior infantry regiment of the British army, the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, and located in a courtyard of their barracks. It was opened to the public in 1818 as The Guardsman, and subsequently renamed in honour of the Grenadier Guards' actions in the Battle of Waterloo. [1]
Being secluded in a wealthy district of London, it was frequented in the past by the Duke of Wellington and King George IV. More recent customers have included Madonna and Prince William. [1] [2] It is also said to be haunted by the ghost of a subaltern who was beaten to death for cheating at cards. [3] [4]
A grenadier was historically an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited from among the strongest and largest soldiers. By the 18th century, the grenadier dedicated to throwing hand grenades had become a less necessary specialist, yet in battle, the grenadiers were the physically robust soldiers who led vanguard assaults, such as storming fortifications in the course of siege warfare.
Field Marshal Sir Robert Rich, 4th Baronet was a British Army officer and politician. As a junior officer he fought at the Battle of Schellenberg and at the Battle of Blenheim during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was then asked to raise a regiment to combat the threat from the Jacobite rising of 1715. He also served with the Pragmatic Army under the Earl of Stair at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession. As a Member of Parliament he represented three different constituencies but never attained political office.
The Household Division forms a part of the British Army's London District and is made up of five regiments of foot guards and two Household Cavalry regiments. The division is responsible for performing public duties and state ceremonies in London and Windsor. Such functions include the State Opening of Parliament, Trooping the Colour, and mounting the King's Guard.
The Canadian Grenadier Guards (CGG) is a reserve infantry regiment in the 34 Canadian Brigade Group, 2nd Canadian Division, of the Canadian Army. The regiment is the oldest and second-most-senior infantry regiment in the Primary Reserve of the Canadian Army. Located in Montreal, its main role is the provision of combat-ready light infantry troops in support of Canadian regular infantry. It is a Household Foot Guard regiment and also provides soldiers for public ceremonial duties, performing similar ceremonial duties as the Guards regiments of the British Army. This primarily entails mounting the guard at Government House, the King's and Governor General's residence, and performing the "Changing the Guard" ceremony on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, a task it shares with Canada's senior Household Foot Guard regiment, the Governor General's Foot Guards of Ottawa. The Canadian Grenadier Guards is an allied regiment to the British Grenadier Guards.
The King's Guard are sentry postings at Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace, organised by the British Army's Household Division. The Household Division also mounts sentry postings at Horse Guards, known as the King's Life Guard.
TheLife Guards (LG) is the most senior regiment of the British Army and part of the Household Cavalry, along with The Blues and Royals.
The Guards Division was an administrative unit of the British Army responsible for the training and administration of the regiments of Foot Guards and the London Guards reserve battalion. The Guards Division was responsible for providing two battalions for public duties to London District ; although the guards are most associated with ceremony, they are nevertheless operational infantry battalions, and as such perform all the various roles of infantry. In 2022, the Guards Division was renamed as the Guards and Parachute Division.
London District (LONDIST) is the name given by the British Army to the area of operations encompassing the Greater London area. It was established in 1870 as Home District.
The British Army primarily divides its infantry into regiments, which are subdivided into battalions. However, for various reasons, since the end of the Second World War it has also maintained companies that are intended to provide increments and reinforcements.
"The British Grenadiers" is a traditional marching song of British and Commonwealth military units whose badge of identification features a grenade, the tune of which dates from the 17th century. It is the regimental quick march of the Royal Artillery, the Corps of Royal Engineers, the Honourable Artillery Company, the Grenadier Guards, and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. It is also an authorized march of the Royal Australian Artillery, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, the Canadian Grenadier Guards, the Royal Regiment of Canada, and the Princess Louise Fusiliers. The standard orchestration for the military band was approved in 1762, when the Royal Artillery Band became recognized officially, and for all other "grenade" regiments in 1763, when the remaining unofficial bands gained official status.
The Old Guard were the veteran elements of the Emperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. As such it was the most prestigious formation in Napoleon's Grande Armée. French soldiers often referred to Napoleon's Old Guard as "the Immortals".
Field Marshal John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford was a British Army officer and politician. After serving as a junior officer during the French Revolutionary Wars and Irish Rebellion of 1798, he became Commanding Officer of the Grenadier Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards during the disastrous Walcheren Campaign. He served as a brigade commander at the Battle of Vitoria and then at the Battle of Roncesvalles on 25 July 1813 when his brigade took the brunt of the French assault and held its position for three hours in the early morning before finally being forced back.
The Battle of Saint-Cast was a military engagement during the Seven Years' War on the French coast between British naval and land expeditionary forces and French coastal defence forces. Fought on 11 September 1758, it was won by the French.
The Horse Grenadier Guards, usually referred to as Horse Grenadiers, were a series of cavalry troops in the British Household Cavalry between 1687 and 1788, who used grenades and other explosives in battle. Originally attached to the Horse Guards, they became independent for a century before being disbanded. However, the men of the troops formed the basis of the new troops of Life Guards.
The Queen's Guards is a 1961 British military drama film directed by Michael Powell from a script by Simon Harcourt-Smith and Roger Milner. It stars Daniel Massey, Raymond Massey, Robert Stephens, and Ursula Jeans.
The Grenadier Guards is the most senior infantry regiment of the British Army, being at the top of the Infantry Order of Precedence. It can trace its lineage back to 1656 when Lord Wentworth's Regiment was raised in Bruges to protect the exiled Charles II. In 1665, this regiment was combined with John Russell's Regiment of Guards to form the current regiment, known as the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards. Since then, the regiment has filled both a ceremonial and protective role as well as an operational one. In 1900, the regiment provided a cadre of personnel to form the Irish Guards; while later, in 1915 it also provided the basis of the Welsh Guards upon their formation.
The Guards Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was formed in the Great War in France in 1915 from battalions of the Guards regiments from the Regular Army. The division served on the Western Front for the duration of the First World War. The division's insignia was the "All Seeing Eye".
The Battle of Monte Cassino order of battle for January 1944, is a listing of the significant formations involved in the fighting on the Winter Line in January 1944, during the period generally known as the First Battle of Monte Cassino.
David Morier, was a Swiss-born British painter who specialised in portraits, military subjects and historical scenes around and after the time of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Jacobite rising of 1745.
The 2nd Guards Infantry Division was a division of the Imperial Russian Army. Before mobilisation for World War I, the division was based in St-Petersburg under the Guards Corps, also headquartered in St-Petersburg.