Guards Armoured

Official MOD Licensed products for The Guards Armoured Division

Widely considered the elite of the mighty British Empire dating as far back as the 1600s, the Guards were often asked to set aside their fluffy high hats and ceremonial duties to excel in combat and prove they could do more than march in formation and stand rigidly straight.

For four hundred years, the Guards regiments acted as individual regiments and not under the present Guards “division” organization. At the outset of the Great War, Lord Kitchener requested of His Majesty King George V that a new elite formation be created from the Foot Guards and Household Cavalry. The battalions of the Grenadiers, Coldstream, Irish, Welsh and Scots Guards were put together into the Guards Division, which was supposed to represent the elite of the British Empire, in both equipment and training. During the Great War, they rose to distinction with a number of battle honours, in spite of not everybody believing in their superior status.

For more info, please see here (Flames of War, hobby page).