The Grenadier Guards

Osprey Men at Arms #73

by David Fraser

General Sir David Fraser tells the story of this famous regiment; their beginnings, customs, battles and traditions from their formation as "The Royal Regiment of Guards" in 1656 down to our own times. It is a remarkable story that includes Marlborough's campaigns (1702-1713) in the struggle against France, the battle of Waterloo (1815), the Crimean War (1853-1856), and of course two World Wars and beyond. Numerous photographs and illustrations populate Sir David's absorbing text, including eight full page colour plates by renowned military artist Angus McBride, with lengthy commentaries examining in detail the uniforms of the Grenadiers from 1865 to the 1970's.

Genres: Military History, Nonfiction, History

48 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 1989

About the author

General Sir David William Fraser was educated at Eton and Christ Church college in the University of Oxford. He left school to enlist at earliest opportunity after the Second World War begun, and joined the Grenadier Guards in 1940, serving for much of the Second World War with the Guards Armoured Division, later in North West Europe, ending the war in the rank of Major. He was intimately involved afterwards in the crises in Suez, and Cyprus, and saw service in the Malaya emergency.

He was also a prolific author, publishing over 20 books mostly focused on the history of the Second World War.

There is more than one David Fraser on Goodreads

Reviews

[Ricky Patten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Synopsis The famous Grenadier Guards, who you have seen parading in front of Buckingham Palace, have an illustrious history, one which is intertwined with the British Royalty, and related in the pages of this book

Title The Grenadier Guards
Authors Text by General Sir David Fraser and Colour Plates by Angus McBride
Editor Lee Johnson
Additional Research R. J. Marrion and D. Fosten
Foreword H. R. H. The Duke of Edinburgh
Categories Military History, History, Uniformology
Date First published 1978 with my copy reprinted in 1996
Pages 40 pages of Royal Octavo which is consistent across the range of Osprey Publications.
Readability Beginner. Easy to read with lots of illustrations.
Cover Taken from one of the colour plates by Angus McBride.

I had just finished reading The British Army 1660–1704 and then The Coldstream Guards so I decided to continue with The Grenadier Guards as it was already on my shelf of waiting to be read books.

I will say up front that I was a little disappointed by The Grenadier Guards, I found the text to be very light on interesting facts and did little to expand my knowledge. I found much of this book to be on the pompous side of things. Now having just said that I have to follow up by explaining that well yes ... this is the most famous first regiment of guards in the British Army with other 300 years of service to their name. As you can see from the credits above, the book even included a forward by a member of the British Royalty, who has been a colonel of this regiment. So I think it must be forgiven that so much pride is associated with this publication, however I did mark this book down to two stars as I feel it was lacking on historical facts.

I can highly recommend getting this set of three books about the genesis of the British Army, and the original first and second regiments of the Guards. Between the three of them it does make for very interesting reading, both from a military history point of view, but also from a sociological stance. These two regiments and the British Army in many ways reflects the times and beings of the British people.


Who should read Title? Any military historian who has an interest in the British Army.

Who should not read Title? Anyone not interested in military history.

Recommendation Good read with great illustrations of the first British regiment of Guards.

[William Paley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid little book with peeks at the history of the regiment.