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Grenadier Guards: UK

Company Colours

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Company Colours

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image provided by Frances Taylor, 9 September 2009

The five Company Colours belonged to my late father (a Major in the Grenadiers), plus one small flag (not sure what).
Frances Taylor, 9 September 2009

The crimson flags are company colours of the Grenadier Guards, to wit the 6th, 7th, 18th, 26th and 28th Companies. Although the regiment once had 3 battalions and 30 companies, there remains since 1994 only one battalion. The 30 company badges, however, remain in use. Battalion colours are replaced about every ten years, and the 30 companies take turns displaying their badge as the central device on each new Queen's Colour (even though the remaining battalion consists of only 4 companies.)

Company badges 1-20 were granted by Charles II in 1661, 21-24 by Queen Anne in 1713, and 25-30 by Queen Victoria in 1855. The so-called Queen's Crown in each flag signifies that these all date since 1953. Company colours do not have the same historical, religious and military significance that are attached to battalion colours.
T.F. Mills, 11 September 2009

Company Colours are small additional colours carried by foot regiments of the British and Canadian Brigade of Guards, and a survival of the general 16th/17th Century practice of carrying a colour for each company in a regiment - camp colours or silks.
Christopher Southworth, 11 September 2009

In the British Guards, Company Colours also act as the personal flag of senior officers. In the Grenadiers, for example, the Regimental Lieutenant Colonel uses that of the 27th Company, and the Regimental Adjutant that of the 28th. The Battalion COs, 2-i-Cs and Adjutants use the badges of the three junior companies of their respective battalions (or at least they did in the 1970s).
Ian Sumner, 11 September 2009