Yeomen of the Guard

The Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard
Badge of the Yeomen of the Guard
Active	1485-
Country	United Kingdom
Type	Dismounted bodyguard
Role	Royal Bodyguard
Size	One company sized formation
Part of	Sovereign's Bodyguard
Garrison/HQ	London
March	Men of Harlech
Engagements	Boulogne, Boyne, Dettingen
Commanders
Colonel in Chief	HM The Queen
Captain	The Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Insignia
Collar Badge	Rose, Thistle and Shamrock

The Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard are a bodyguard of the British Monarch. The oldest British military corps still in existence, it was created by Henry VII in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth. As a token of this venerability, the Yeomen still wear red and gold uniforms of Tudor style. There are 60 Yeomen of the Guard (plus six officers), drawn from retired members of the British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force, but traditionally not the Royal Navy. This ban on Royal Navy Personnel was lifted in 2011 and two sailors joined the ranks of the Yeomen of the Guard. However, the role of the Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard is a political appointment — the captain is always the government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Lords.

Today the Yeomen of the Guard have a purely ceremonial role. Armed with a Wilkinson sword and an ornamental partizan, they accompany the Sovereign at the annual Royal Maundy Service, investitures and summer Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace, and so on. However, their most famous duty is to 'ceremonially' search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster prior to the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that dates back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up Parliament. In modern times officers from the Metropolitan Police carry out a more sophisticated additional search.