In this highly entertaining and informative book, Christopher Joll
and Anthony Weldon have captured the careers, accomplishments,
follies and the occasional crimes of over three hundred of the
officers and men who have served in the seven Regiments (two
Household Cavalry and five Foot Guards) of the sovereign's personal
troops. The pages of The DRUM HORSE IN THE FOUNTAIN will reveal a
whole parade of remarkable and unusual characters... In the world
of the arts - theatre, film, music, and writing - and sport there
are many notable, and some surprising, Guardsmen including * two
Oscar winning film stars - one of whom was drunkenly responsible
for dispatching a Drum Horse into "The Fountain" in front of
Buckingham Palace. And some of the most eccentric men ever to have
been let loose on the public including * The irresponsible officer
in charge of the Tower of London guard who had to break back into
the Tower by climbing the mast of a barge on the Thames and then
onto Traitor's Gate; * The VC who rallied his troops with a hunting
horn; * The officer who dressed as a nun to entertain the Duke of
Wellington; * The unfortunate officer who Queen Victoria thought
was addressing her when he was actually trying to admonish his
unruly horse - she was not amused; * Traitors, conmen, bigamists, a
purveyor of `honours for cash' and three accused of murder - as
well as at least five murder victims, one of whom died in a Chicago
bootleggers' shoot-out. On military service the officers and men of
the Household Division have * earned forty-four Victoria Crosses; *
been founding members of SOE, SAS, Commandos, operated behind enemy
lines and pioneered military parachuting; * acted as spies, double
agents and spy masters; * been supported through the fiercest
fighting of WW2 by a remarkably loayl tea-lady in her NAAFI wagon.
As well as Prime Ministers and politicians, churchmen also feature
prominently with * a Cardinal who, had he lived, might have been
Pope; an Archbishop of Canterbury, known as `Killer', with an MC
(as well as four padres awarded MCs), a bishop, two monks, three
Lord Priors of the Order of St John, and two Grand Masters of the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta (who rank as Cardinals). Were
this not enough, amongst actual, as well as aspiring, royalty and
their progeny - legitimate and otherwise, there was * the
aristocratic candidate for the throne of Albania (who, although
almost blind, fought as a regimental officer in WW1 without
actually enlisting). ...and, not to be forgotten, are * one
regimental wolfhound in the 1930s which dispatched the Italian
Ambassador's greyhound, three bears (one stuffed), two WW1 milking
cows who took part in the 1919 Victory Parade, one monkey with the
rank of Corporal of Horse and a very alert goose called Jacob.
General
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