Red was the army colour because red is colour of King's liveries and soldiers are King's fighting men. A regiment is a little society of soldiers with a life of its own which goes on not only from year to year but from century to century. Grenadier Guards, men and officers first stood on parade one summer's day in 1660 -- 50 years after not one of those officers or men were in the regiment, most of them were dead. Here and there in London or in some country town or village there may have been a battered old veteran who talked of the days when he served in the King's Foot Guards. But others had taken their places. Men came and went; they elided their term of service, or were killed in battle, or died of illness, but the young recruits were always coming in and learning from the older soldiers how to keep up the good name of the regiment. The men came and went, but the regiment lived on, their battle honours embroidered on their colours to remind them of the brave deeds done by their regiment. --The Army by Captain A.H. Atteridge Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 125 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1972 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com