The Changing of the Guard at the royal residences in London is a familiar sight. A Mounted Guard is posted at Horse Guards Arch even though the gatehouse is all that is left of Whitehall Palace. An infantry Queen's Guard is posted at Buckingham Palace, St. James's Palace, the Tower of London, and Windsor Castle. This "public duty" is traditionally performed by detachments of Guards regiments. These are some of the oldest units in the British Army, formed in turbulent times when the country was leery about standing armies but recognised the need for a Sovereign's bodyguard. Today, the Household Cavalry consists of the Household Cavalry Regiment with mounted squadrons perpetuating the separate identities of The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals, and the Foot Guards consist of five regiments, namely Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards, and Welsh Guards. These regiments and their predecessors accompanied the Sovereign on campaign, the last monarch present on the battlefield being George II in 1743. Since then the Guards regiments have been regularly deployed on most of the British Army's campaigns while simultaneously maintaining an increasingly ceremonial role of guarding the Sovereign at home. Their dual combat and ceremonial role has remained unchanged for centuries.

        How does one tell the regiments apart?

        Why do the Foot Guards wear bearskin hats, and are they real?

       Yes, bearskins are real -- from Canadian brown bears. While other accoutrements have substituted synthetics for the real thing (e.g. plastic replacements for leather belts) for both economy and ease of maintenance, the Army has yet to find an acceptable substitute for real bear skins that will not become bedraggled in wind and rain or subject to static electricity when passing near power lines. (In 2005, the Army began the latest scientific study for a synthetic substitute.) Well-intentioned but uninformed members of the public have repeatedly invoked animal rights in an effort to discontinue the use of bear skins, but such campaigns are not really necessary since no bears are sacrificed for the British Army. Under an agreement with the Canadian government, Inuit hunters regularly cull brown bears for ecological purposes. As of 2005, approximately 40,000 bears were culled annually (out of a population of one million), but only 100 pelts were subsequently sold to the British Army, and no bears were specifically killed for the Army's need of fur. Only a handful of new bearkskin hats are regularly manufactured since old ones are well maintained and refurbished. Of the approximately 4,000 bearskin hats in current use, most are over twenty years old, and many are about a hundred years old. They are treated with extreme care (they cost about $1,200 each), and any guardsman found spiffing his up with chemicals or shoepolish is subject to severe discipline. Since the Brigade of Guards until the 1960s stood at close to 10,000 men, there is no real shortage of old bearskin hats.

       Although the style of bearskin hats has remained virtually unchanged since the 1830s, their military applications had been evolving for some time earlier.

       In much of Europe in the late 17th century, specialist elite troops called grenadiers started wearing brimless caps -- probably to facilitate the throwing of grenades without losing their hats. Typically these hats looked like nightcap stockings with a stiff decorated front panel. The panels evolved into metal plates, and the back of the cap was often decorated with a tuft of bearskin fur. By 1700 in some armies the fur had obscured the whole of the cap except the front panel. The fur was a symbol of the virility of these troops, and both the fur and the plates on these caps created a taller, meaner look which was important in the psychology of intimidation. In addition, the sun reflecting off the metal plates created the illusion of a man's face almost a foot taller than it really was. Since the grenadier caps were associated with elite troops, royal guards regiments also adopted them, and guards regiments were typically already restricted to "giants". (The British Guards regiments still maintain a six-foot eligibility requirement.) In the 18th century, most armies including the British, had a grenadier company in every regiment, and they all wore variations of this grenadier cap.

       The British practice of covering grenadier caps with fur seems to have originated unofficially in the later stages of the French and Indian War, no doubt inspired by a plentiful supply of bears and frontiersmen who dressed themselves liberally in furs. By 1766 bearskin caps for grenadiers was official throughout the army. These were smaller than today's bearskins, had a plate on the front, a grenade badge on the back and were draped with cords. All these frills on the bearskin were eliminated in 1829 after several minor modifications in design.

       In 1800 the British army adopted the shako (a peaked stovepipe hat), and dispensed with tricornes and grenadier caps (but grenadier companies retained the latter for parade dress). In 1815 the First Regiment of Guards defeated the Grenadiers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard at Waterloo, and were shortly afterwards given the new title "Grenadier Guards" and the right to wear the bearskin hats of their defeated counterparts. This was the familiar 18th-century style with metal plates, cords and grenades. All these fills on the bearskin hat were eliminated in 1829 in favour of the simpler style still worn today. The modern bearskin is about eighteen inches tall and weighs about two pounds, the bearskin being fitted on wicker frame.

       The Grenadier Guards only briefly held the distinction of being the only troops wearing bearskin hats. The Coldstream Guards adopted it shortly afterwards, and there was probably considerable pressure to do this since bearskins had remained a Guards sartorial item in much of the rest of Europe. In 1831 the 3rd Guards were retitled "Scots Fusilier Guards" and also extended the right to wear the bearskin. Two more regiments of Guards, Irish and Welsh, were formed in 1900 and 1915 respectively, by which time the modern-style bearskin had long been traditional guards headgear. Bearskin hats were last worn in battle during the Crimean war.