I PROMISED MYSELF I’d wake up this 4th of July morning and head down to the Battery for the annual Independence Day artillery salute by the Veteran Corps of Artillery. However, the gods of slumber ordained that I remain in bed asleep and so in recompense I thought I’d bring you, dear readers, an informative post about the Corps itself. While this site has featured a fair amount on the Old Guard we mustn’t let our readers be mistaken that we are somehow ignoring the VCA. After all, the Veteran Corps of Artillery, State of New York, founded in 1790, is more senior to the Old Guard, founded in 1826 (though in fact an amalgamation of the two older militia companies, if I recall correctly). While there is more of the Old Guard available from online research, I am more familiar with the VCA owing to my Uncle Matt’s membership thereof. And of course, like the Old Guard, the VCA operates on a seperate ranking structure, so that one could be a Major General in the Army, National Guard, or New York Guard, and yet be a mere private in the Veteran Corps of Artillery. (more…)

Knight Grand Cross of Obedience of the Order of Malta

Maj-Gen the 2nd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who has died aged 90, was awarded an MC in 1940 and later became director of Army public relations at a time when the Armed Forces’ public profile was growing in importance.

At 50 he retired early to run his 350-acre farm in Kent and to join the boards of a series of firms to help pay for the education of his five children. In the House of Lords he became a persistent critic of the neglect of rural and military interests, and took a lifelong interest in archaeology and water divining.

The sole Roman Catholic trustee of a £3 million appeal for Canterbury Cathedral in 1974, Monckton was president of the British Association of the Sovereign Order of Malta, and helped to ease strained relations with its Anglican counterpart, the Venerable Order of St John of Jerusalem, by taking part in ecumenical services.

He also played a key role in forming the Order of Malta Volunteers, who aid the sick at the shrine of Lourdes, and in setting up trust care homes with the Venerable Order.

(more…)

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys), to give its full name, is a rather interesting outfit, being Scotland’s only cavalry regiment and indeed the senior Scottish regiment in the entire British Army. The oldest antecedents of the regiment date back to the late 1600s, though it only took its current form as SCOTS DG (the official abbreviation) in 1971. The unit’s cap badge displays the French Imperial Eagle captured by the Scots Greys (the main antecedent of the current regiment) at Waterloo. More interestingly, however, is that the cap badge is always, even to this day, worn on a black facing, in mourning for Czar Nicholas II.

The Czar was Colonel-in-Chief of the Scots Greys from 1894 until his grizly murder at the hands of the Bolsheviks. Indeed, at regimental dinners at which the band is present, ‘God Save the Czar’, the old Russian Imperial Anthem, is still played in memory of His Imperial Majesty and his family. In 1998, the Commanding Officer and a regimental party were present at the interrment of the Czar’s remains in St. Petersburg. The Czar is pictured above in his uniform as Colonel-in-Chief of the regiment. Unique amongst the British cavalry regiments, the full dress uniform of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards includes the bearskin cap, a privilege inherited from the Scots Greys.

The Scots Greys were also the subject of one of Lady Elizabeth Butler’s great paintings, ‘Scotland Forever!’ (below, and in larger form here), depicting their charge at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and further described here by our own Man About Mayfair. Of course, the fact which we have no doubt will bring even greater reknown to the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards is its privilege of counting the great William Calderhead, M.A. (Hons), St Andrews 2004, among its officers.

These photos are from the funeral procession of Gen. Daniel Sickles in 1914. Above, the General’s coffin leaves St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Below, the procession down an avenue (I can’t tell which one), eventually to be transported to Washington and buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The Old Guard of the City of New York provides the Guard of Honor.

Previously: Old Guardsmen | The Old Guard | Grandpa

Msgr. Lavelle and others review the 69th N.Y. Regiment from the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 21 June 1916.

Previously: Your Royal Highness, Caed Mile Failte | Fighting 69th: Home for St. Patrick’s Day

I’d like to thank Field Marshal Rommel for vindicating my life.

The Army Institute of Heraldry on 7 April 2006 approved a new coat-of-arms (left) and Distinctive Unit Insignia (right) for the 104th Military Police Battalion. According to the information provided by TIOH (as the Institute goes by), the red in the shield represents the unit’s role as a Field Artillery Battalion during World War II, while the green signifies the military police. The taro leaf represents the unit’s service in Hawai’i during the Spanish-American War, while the fleur-de-lis stands for service in France during both World Wars.

The black silhouette of the World Trade Center, a unique heraldic innovation, honors members of the unit who died in the Twin Towers on September 11, as well as the members of the battalion deployed to Manhattan. The service of earlier component units are represented in the canton. The red cross of St George symbolizes the War of Independence, while the blue saltire of St Andrew (akin to that of the Confederate battle flag) symbolizes the Civil War.

In blazonry, the language of heraldry, the shield is “per bend Gules and Vert, a bend wavy Argent, to chief a taro leaf and fleur-de-lis in bend Or; issuing from base the silhouette of the Twin Towers Sable edged of the fourth; on a canton of the last a cross Gules surmounted by a saltire Azure”. The crest is that which is standard to all New York Army National Guard units, depicting the Halve Maen on which Hudson explored New York harbor and his eponymous river. It is blazoned “from a wreath Argent and Gules, the full rigged ship “Half Moon” all Proper”.

Meanwhile, the President of the Senate of North Carolina petitioned the College of Arms in London for a coat of arms for the upper house of the state legislature. The devisal by Letters Patent of Arms, Crest, and Supporters was made 25 November 2005 by Garter, Clarenceux, and Norroy and Ulster Kings of Arms. The eight little shields (known as escutcheons in blazonry) on the main shield allude to the eight proprietary Lords of the Province of Carolina. The colonial grant for Carolina was one of the most feudal, allowing the Lords of Carolina to grant minor hereditary titles of nobility, and in terms of heraldry allowed for the appointment of a Carolina Herald to grant arms independently of the College of Arms in England. The noble coronet atop the shield is apparently one of the heraldic ornaments worked out in 1705 for landgraves and cassiques in the Province of Carolina.

The shield of the coat of arms of the Senate of North Carolina is blazoned as “Argent on a Cross between four Escutcheons bases inwards Gules four Escutcheons bases also inwards Argent” while the crest is “Issuant from a Coronet of a Noble of the former Province of Carolina Or a Cap of Liberty Gules raised upon a Pole Or between two Cornucopiae in saltire Argent replenished proper”. The supporters are “On each side an Aborigine of North Carolina as depicted by John White in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First that on the dexter a Warrior supporting with his exterior hand a Long Bow and holding an Arrow girded at his back a Quiver that on the sinister a Woman holding in her exterior hand a Gourd all proper”.

An interesting note: the lower house of North Carolina’s General Assembly was known as the House of Commons until the conquest of the South during the Civil War.

Images from the United States Army Institute of Heraldry and the College of Arms respectively.

Thus wrote Francis Finnegan of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to H.R.H. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, (above, in the uniform of the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars) inviting him to partake in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities in 1966 during his visit to North America. The invitation was made in recompense for the opprobrious breach of propriety in 1861 when Col. Michael Corcoran, Commanding Officer of the New York 69th committed an act of insubordination when he refused to order his troops to take part in the official festivities welcoming the Prince of Wales to New York. Corcoran was dropped from the Officers Roll of the New York State Militia for the offense, and was to be court-martialled but for the outbreak of the Civil War.

Finnegan, the public relations director of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade organised by the Ancient Order of Hibernians every year, assured the Duke of Edinburgh that he would not be mistreated as the Prince of Wales had been one hundred and five years previous. “Alas,” TIME magazine reported, “he arrived in Manhattan too late on St. Patrick’s Day to march in the Fifth Avenue parade, even though he did sport a fine green tie. Britain’s Prince Philip, 44, in a green tie? ‘Just a coincidence,’ chuckled the consort.” (TIME, 25 March, 1966).

The 1861 visit of the Prince of Wales to New York was a spectacular event, despite the insults of Col. Corcoran. A ball was held, just as for the Queen Mother during her 1954 visit to New York, as well as a parade and pass-in-review.

IN THE SHADOW OF FATHER DUFFY: Members of the New York City National Guard (sic) stand next to a wreath during a ceremony honoring New York’s Fighting 69th at Times Square’s Father Duffy Square (sic) yesterday. The regiment, which suffered 19 casualties during its tour of duty in Iraq, will be marching as a full unit in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Fifth Avenue. The speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, has decided not to march in the parade. Story, page 3.

Despite the inaccuracies (it’s the New York National Guard, not New York City National Guard, and Father Duffy Square is opposite Times Square, not in it), it’s nice to see one of the Empire State’s greatest regiments remembered in the press, and on no less than the front page.

Further:

A very interesting article entitled ‘Two of the Famous Stories About Woodrow Wilson — And They’re Not True‘ by Thomas Fleming. An excerpt:

In 1954 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (n.1900, m.2002) visited New York to accept an educational fund raised by Americans in memory of the late King George VI. On the evening of November 1 of that year, the Seventh Regiment entertained Her Majesty with a special ball held in her honor at the Armory on Park Avenue (view above). Her Majesty also visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine where she was received by the (Episcopal) Bishop of New York, the Dean, and the clergy of the Cathedral. The three stone blocks on the façade seen in the view below have since been sculpted.

Entitled “National Guard – 7th Regiment New York State Militia”, this mid-nineteenth century view shows the famous 7th Regiment of New York, nicknamed the Silk-Stocking Regiment, parading in Washington Square. In the background can be seen the University of the City of New York and the Church of St. Thomas, which has since moved to Fifth Avenue in Midtown.

GOVERNORS ISLAND IS one of New York’s hidden gems. Not only is it a place which has a long and storied history, but it remains, however underappreciated, a place of great beauty, not to mention a place of great potential. The fact that this island in New York Harbor has been the property of the government for the preponderance of its existence has shielded it from the destructive forces of commerce which have savaged so much of what is beautiful and historic in the remainder of the city.

Let us explore this intriguing isle… (more…)

Ardolph Loges Kline, one of my grandfather’s predecessors as Commander of the Old Guard of the City of New York, on the 89th Anniversary of the Old Guard, April 22, 1915. Kline was the acting Mayor of New York who started the annual tradition of lighting the Christmas Tree in City Hall Park (or ‘holiday tree’ as it is now officially called). This ceremony has since been eclipsed in popularity by the Rockefeller Center tree lighting, but still takes place every year.

Here we have C.H. Heustis on his 85th birthday in 1922. Heustis served in General Burnside’s brigade during the Civil War, later becoming a broker on Wall Street. He never missed a single meeting or parade of the Old Guard once he joined.

From the Bettmann archive.

Previously: The Old Guard | Grandpa

Twas on this day two centuries ago that the Royal Navy under Lord Nelson gave the combined French and Spanish fleet a right good whalloping, thus ensuring that freedom and responsible constitutional government would flourish and spread for two centuries afterward.

So today we raise a glass to Lord Nelson, and spit on the name Bonaparte! (And Hitler, and Stalin, and Brussels, and any such nastiness the continent dare throw against the English-speaking peoples of the world!).

The above photograph shows a 1963 service in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York. Closest to the sanctuary are four members of the Veteran Corps of Artillery, State of New York, but behind them can be scene a member of the Old Guard of the City of New York. The VCA, of which my Uncle Matt (a frequent commenter upon this site) is a member, is older, being founded in 1790. The Old Guard dates from 1826, and Uncle Matt’s father (my grandpa) was Commadant of that august group. There’s a great photo of my father as a small child gazing up at his father in Old Guard uniform including the tall bearskin busby. Perhaps Pop will scan it sometime, else I will get around to it when I’m back in the States.

With all its traditional pomp and circumstance, the Old Guard of the City of New York turned out to observe the one hundred and fifth anniversary of its organization. There was the usual parade with major generals, colonels, majors, and captains marching as privates under the banners of this battalion and proud of their place in its rank and file. After the parade church services were held in the old chapel on Governors Island.
(A bad copy from The Sun, Fort Covington, NY, 1931)

As the reader may well be aware, the last remaining six of Scotland’s historic Army regiments, one of which is so old that it is knicknamed ‘Pontius Pilate’s Bodyguard’, are to be merged into a new ‘super-regiment’ of six battallions, to be called the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Furthermore, the Royals Scots and the Kings Own Scottish Borderers are to be merged into a single battallion. In attempt to calm the fury which this announcement unleashed, government ministers promised that the six regiments would retain their historic identities and legacies as they transform into battallions of the new super-regiment by retaining their cap badges.

However, government ministers lie. A few weeks ago the new cap badge of the Royal Regiment of Scotland was unveiled, and all batallions will be required to wear it. It is simple and aesthetically pleasing, but none of these qualities really matter. It will be remembered not for its beauty but for the outrageous betrayal of tradition and common sense which will, I dare say, tar the Royal Regiment of Scotland for a very long time. There are, of course, last ditch efforts by politicians of all stripes and sizes to save the regiments, an important part of both Scotland’s history and present, but there is not much hope. What Downing Street says goes, irrespective of centuries of tradition, common sense, a public outcry, and the will of the people. Strange as it may seem, after these changes Canada will have more Scottish regiments than Scotland.

Meanwhile, Ian Hamilton ruefully mourns the lack of pomp at the recent opening of the Scottish parliament in the Sunday Times.

September 14 is the twenty-third anniversary of the assasination of the Catholic general and politician Bachir Gemayel by Syrian agents, only nine days before he was to be inaugurated as President of Lebanon. Gemayel was the son of Pierre Gemayel, the founder of the Lebanese Kataeb (Phalange) which Bachir eventually led himself, and was also instrumental in unifying the Christian militias of the country into the Lebanese Forces, which joined with the conventional Lebanese Armed Forces in their 100-day attempt to expel the Syrians from Lebanon in 1978.

A massive bomb exploded in the Kataeb headquarters on September 14, 1982, killing the President-elect and twenty-four other souls. The assasination only further escalated the violence of the Civil War, a conflict which was taken to regretable extremes by all the parties invovled. (more…)

The man of letters, of course, needs a place in which to withdraw from his various dalliances in the social realm and to concentrate on the dominion of learning; a private place in which to enjoy a book, broadsheet or other periodical, or perhaps to brood in a comfortable chair with a dram of scotch and some sound music. The ladyfolk, needless to say, have no place in such a bailiwick, not even to clean, for the wise gentleman knows that a study which accumulates in dust likewise accumulates in a certain intangible value. After all, what man of letters does not relish in removing his 1928 Burns and Oates edition of Martyrs of the Upper Volta from the shelves, blowing the dust from the cover, and charging inwards to read of some blessed soul who met his end in a steamy cauldron?

What then could throw arcadian bliss into disarray quite as much as the sudden appearance of Kaiser Wilhelm? A Hapsburg? You may as well have invited! A Bourbon? Well, fair enough, they have been known to lose their heads. But a Hohenzollern? You’ve got your work cut out for you.

Once considered the seminal work on dealing with Spontaneous Hohenzollern Appearances (or ‘SHA’), Dr. Leo von Fulbreck’s Treatise on the Treatment of Hohenzollernitosicity (to use the old, politically-incorrect term for SHA), has since been discredited, perhaps unjustly due to the Sparticist leanings of the Thuringian professor. The 1919 U.S. War Department guide War Department Field Guide 24-R: Recommended Courses of Action in Event of Hohenzollern Situation (and its appendix 24-R(II) dealing with the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen branch) perpetuated the essence of von Fulbreck’s theories shorn of their ideological slant. The Second-World-War-era Your Enemy: the Sudden Hun-henzollern released by the British Department of Information, however, is generally considered unreliable. Combing through all this mess, I have endeavoured to deliver as part of my contribution to learning the most well-researched, as well as concise, recommended course of action regarding the spontaneous appearence of Hohenzollerns in one’s study:

1. Give the man a stern, intense, but unprovocative stare (as exemplified in above illustration) and he will eventually be moved to tears, mourning the loss of Tanganyika.
2. Simultaneously ring the bell (or, if one’s home is electrically-equipped, press the buzzer) and ask one of your staff to contact the Doorn Home for the Dethroned and Bewildered to inform them that one of their patients is on the loose.
3. Offer a stiff drink and wait for the men from the Doorn Home to arrive.

With any luck that should suffice, and unfortunate mishaps will hopefully be avoided.

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