Foot Guards

Foot guards is a term used to describe elite infantry regiments.

British Army

The Foot Guards are the Infantry regiments of the Household Division of the British Army. There have been six regiments of foot guards, all of which still exist apart from the Machine Gun Guards, which was formed during the First World War and disbanded in 1920:
*Grenadier Guards
*Coldstream Guards
*Scots Guards
*Irish Guards
*Welsh Guards
*Guards Machine Gun Regiment ("Machine Gun Guards")

While regiments may have other distinguishing features, a simple method of identification is by observing the spacing of buttons on the tunic. The ascending number of buttons also indicates the order in which the regiments were formed, although the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, an ancestor of the Grenadier Guards, is younger than the regiment that now takes the name of the Coldstream Guards; the oldest continuously serving regiment in the regular British Army (there are older regiments in the Territorial Army). There are various other methods of distinguishing between the regiments - the colour of the plume, and what side it is worn on the bearskin, the collar badge and the shoulder badge. When all five regiments parade together, they are in the order Grenadier Guards on the right flank, then Scots Guards, Welsh Guards, Irish Guards and Coldstream Guards on the left flank. This is because, although the Coldstream are ranked second in seniority, their motto is 'Nulli Secundus' ('Second to None').