§ Mr. STURROCKasked the Secretary of State for War whether he adheres to the statement that the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards have no national characteristics?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLThis statement, for which I accept responsibility, was unfortunately phrased and escaped my attention in the pressure of dealing with a large number of questions. The Grenadier and Coldstream Guards are English Regiments. The Grenadier Guards were originally raised in Flanders in 1656 as a regiment of Guards for King Charles II. The first officers and men were English Cavaliers, who had followed the King into exile. The regiment was first called the Royal Regiment of Guards. It went back to England after the restoration in 1660 and was subsequently named the 1st Guards, receiving its present title after Waterloo in commemoration of its having defeated the Grenadiers of the French Imperial Corps in that battle. The Coldstream Guards were derived from Monk's Regiment of the Parliamentary Army, which was raised at Newcastle in 1650 and formed part of the Army with which Cromwell invaded and afterwards occupied Scotland. The Regiment with other troops was quartered at Coldstream, a small village on the Tweed, in the winter 1659–60, and formed part of the forces with which General Monk marched from that village to London to restore the King. It is from this connection with Coldstream that the regiment derived its present title of the Coldstream Guards. The permanent recruiting districts of both regiments are and have always been in England, although some recruits have at different periods been raised in other parts of the United Kingdom for both. At the present moment 98 per cent. of both regiments are English.