Here it is
our latest range which will feature Guards and Regiments and all of
the models will appear on Bullnoses and approximately 6 models shall
be released each year. We felt it fitting to start the range with
the most senior regiment of the British Army - The Lifeguards who
were formed at the restoration in 1660 from a group of eighty
Royalists who had gone into exile with King Charles II after his
defeat at the Battle of Worcester (1652). They first saw action at
the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1665 (the Monmouth Rebellion) and
subsequently in both the Jacobite Wars and during the war of
Austrian Succession (1742-46). They were redesignated the 1st and
2nd Life Guards in 1788, a period from which the majority of today's
state dress originates, and formed the front charging line of the
Household Cavalry Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), staging
the famous charge against the French Cuirassiers that saved the
British centre from being overrun.
During the nineteenth century, the Life Guards served in Egypt, as
part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, taking part in the romantic
Moonlight Charge at Kassassin and also in the Sudan and South
Africa. In the First World War, the Regiment saw action at Mons, Le
Cateau, The Marne, Ypres, Loos, Poelcappelle, Passchendale and most
notably at Zandvoorde where the Life Guards lost two complete
squadrons. During the Second World War, the Life Guards contributed
men to both Household Cavalry Regiments, the second of which was
described by General Brian Horrocks as "the finest armoured car
regiment I have ever seen". They landed at Normandy in July 1944 and
spearheaded the Guards Armoured Brigade advance through France to
liberate Brussels and became the only forces to make contact with
the Polish Free Forces during the advance to the bridge at Arnhem.
Reformed as The Life Guards after the war, the regiment saw service
in the Canal Zone, Aden and Oman against the dissident tribesmen,
including the assault with the SAS on the Jebel Ahkter and in
Cyprus, Malaya, Singapore and Borneo. Since the early seventies, the
Regiment has undertaken seven tours of Northern Ireland and a number
in support of the United Nations Forces in Cyprus. The entire
regiment was deployed to the Gulf in 1990 and took part in the land
war finishing up astride the Kuwait City Basra highroad. In 1991,
the Regiment was reduced to two reconnaissance squadrons based in
Windsor in a unionised regiment with The Blues and Royals and one
squadron committed to mounted ceremonial duty in London. The
regiment has recently had squadrons on operational deployments with
the UN and Nato in Bosnia.
Model GR01 starts the range and features the badge of the Lifeguards
LETTER FROM A.P.BOTTOMLEY
THE HOUSEHOLD DIVISION