Lindsey's Blog: Final Research Project

A culture is composed of individuals who share beliefs on many aspects including art, lifestyle, behavior and language. Often times, there are images that become associated with and are representative of the culture. Certain images such as flags, famous buildings and pop culture icons represent what people generally think about culture. The same idea surrounds British culture; the British guard being one of those cultural images. Many associate soldiers in red uniforms and black fur hats with the British culture but never read into the cultural image any further. The British guards are so commonly used in reference to British culture that I wanted to analyze them more in depth. The Queen’s Guard, also known as the Queen’s Life Guard, is the name given to the soldiers whose main priority is guarding the royal residences in London. These locations include Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace, Tower of London and Windsor Castle. The guards also post a sentry at the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the Queen’s residence in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Queen’s Guard is found from one of the five regiments of foot guards. These regiments include, in order of power, Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards, and Welsh Guards. The rank of power follows the order in which the regiment is listed with the Grenadier Guards as the most senior regiment and the Welsh Guards as the lowest regiment.

Upon discovering that there are five regiments within the Queen’s Foot Guards, I became intrigued with what the difference was between each group and how they managed power. Due to the fact that I never knew there were five different regiments, I believe the power relationship among the Queen’s Foot Guards is subtle. I do not believe the dominate regiments hold a significant amount of power over the lower regiments. Analyzing the subtle differences in uniform, the roles of the guards, and the ceremonies and parades they participate in allowed me to discover the power relationship between the five regiments. Also, interpreting the type of power relationship that exists among the guards says a lot about the political cultural aspect within England. The specific location to which I compared information and got research was Buckingham Palace where the guards specifically must protect.

Before analyzing the British guards, it is important to understand how to read cultural products as texts. The cultural products that I examine in reference to the British guards including clothing, photographs and ceremonies can help define and express political culture as a whole. These things can be analyzed as texts and provide a wide range of information. Interpreting these aspects, or reading them as texts, is what Turner describes as “The most recognizable and possibly the most important theoretical strategy cultural studies has developed…” (Turner 87). Everything is a text and can be used to explain cultural aspects. This directly relates to the issue of clothing within the five different regiments of foot guards.

The most significant way to analyze the power distribution between guards is to “read” their uniforms. All regiments wear a scarlet tunic, black bearskin hat, shoulder stripes, cuffs of dark blue and white, dark blue trousers with a red stripe down each leg, and a white leather belt. Although uniforms are very similar, there are some differences. The first difference lies within the buttons. Grenadier Guards are the most senior regiment. The buttons going down their red tunic are single spaced and represent their number one status. Buttons on the Coldstream Guards tunics are in pairs, the Scots Guards are spaced in threes, the Irish Guards are in groups of fours, and the Welsh Guards are in groups of five.

Below is a picture with the different tunics where the patterns of the buttons are visible (you can click on it to make the image larger if needed). The pictures follow the order of the regiments. The spacing of the buttons is the most major difference in the uniforms between the five regiments. The most dominant group does not stand out easily among the other groups and therefore is not showing a very big difference in power. If the Grenadier Guards held a large amount of power in comparison to the other foot guards more than likely they would wear a completely different uniform or different color tunic or something of that nature.

Other differences in uniform are also modest. Each regiment wears a different collar badge and shoulder badge. A soldier can easily be told which regiment he belongs to from the badge they are wearing but the badges are very difficult to see from a distance. The Grenadier Guards wear a grenade on their collar and the Royal Cypher on their shoulder, the Coldstream Guards wear a Garter Star on their collar and a rose on their shoulder, the Scots Guards wear a Thistle Star and a Thistle, the Irish Guards wear a shamrock and the St. Patrick Star, and the Welsh Guards wear leeks on both badges. A final subtle difference between uniforms is the side of the hat the plume is located and also the color of the plume. The Scots Guards is the only regiment who does not wear a plume at all. The Coldstream and Irish Guards wear them on the right while the Grenadier and Welsh Guards wear them on the left. The colors of the plumes are all different and include white, scarlet, blue and white-green-white. Analyzing the difference in dress between soldiers relates directly to Turner's section on semiotics because the dress of the soldiers contain signs. Turner states, "...we signify ourselves through the signs available to us within our culture; we select and combine them in relation to the codes and conventions established within our culture, in order to limit and determine the range of possible meanings they are likely to generate when read by others" (Turner 17). The different buttons and badges act as a collection of signs and all hold a certain meaning within society once they are all put together on the uniform. They represent the way the soldiers want to be seen within the culture. The soldiers want to be read by others as having authority and importance in society.

Another way to analyze the power relationship is to look at the different roles each regiment carries out. Within the Foot Guards, all regiments serve as a light infantry battalion as well as in public duties meaning mostly ceremonies and parades. It was my belief that the senior regiment would hold more responsibilites than the other regiments showing their higher status in power. But, the only differences that exist are that the Grenadier Guards serve in more public duties than the others and that the Scots Guards serve in armoured infantry. There are no significant roles the higher regiments fulfill that the lower regiments do not fulfill as well. This illustrates the very even power relationship that exists. All regiments remain basically equal.

The final thing I focused on when analyzing the Queen's Guards was the most famous ceremony they are involved in, the Changing of the Guards. This ceremony involves the entire Household Calvary Regiment which includes the five regiments of foot guards and two other regiments called the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals. This is where my primary source plays a major role. I was able to attend the Changing of the Guards ceremony at Buckingham Palace to see the different regiments in action. When I first arrived

I was able to tell that the guards behind the gate were Coldstream Guards due to the scarlet plumes on the right side of their hats (picture to the right). It was too far to see which badges they were wearing and it was difficult to see the buttons which is why the plumes were so important. It is a good idea to have more than one way of telling the difference between the regiments. I thought it was really cool to have some knowledge about the soldiers in the ceremony and to know which regiment I was looking at. My main focus while at the Changing of the Guards was to see how the different regiments interacted throughout the ceremony. As the soldiers paraded out of Buckingham Palace and onto the streets, it was obvious that the Grenadier Guards were first. I could tell it was them by the white plumes on the left side of their hats. The senior regiment did get to be at the head of the parade followed by all other soldiers. This reinforces the fact that there is definitely a division of power among the regiments.

All of the regiments among the Queen's Foot Guards seemed similar to me before I started my research. Upon looking at the specific regiments in depth, I was able to see that there is a power relationship among the senior regiment and lower regiments. The difference in uniforms as well as the roles and duties they participate in show this division. There may be a subtle difference in power but a difference does exist. The Foot Guards represent a lot about British culture in general. The guards serve most importantly as protectors but just as important they serve as ceremonial figures. This represents how important tradition is within the public. England values history while still adapting to the changing times and the British guards represent power and history.