Most people recognize the famous British soldiers in their tall bearskin caps and bright red tunics that stand guard outside Buckingham Palace, St. James Palace and the Tower of London. The Foot Guard Regiments are among the oldest and most respected fighting units in the world The five Guards Regiments respectfully hold battle honors dating back to 1680 including the Seven Years War, the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Persian Gulf War, and several others.

By the First World War the most senior of the Guards Regiments, the Grenadier Guards, were preparing to celebrate their 260th anniversary, at the same time the youngest of the Guards Regiments, the Welsh Guards, was just being formed.

During the Great War, the Guards served in every major campaign on the western front, from the early August days of 1914 at Mons, straight through to the occupation of Cologne after the Armistice in 1919. In 1915, at the request of King George V, the five Guards Regiments were brought together into their own division The Guards Division. As their own division, the Guards continued to build a reputation as a disciplined and fighting force that exceeded all expectations. At the end of the war, King George V honored the individual privates of the Guards Division with a title aside from private, From that point on they were respectfully to be known as Guardsmen.

The Guards regiments were amongest some of the first units to be sent to France in 1939 to form the British Expeditionary Force.