RAOC Gazette - page 92
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1980 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1980 |
| Late date | 1980 |
| Transcription |
OUR YEOMAN WARDERS A VISIT TO THE TOWER — FOR SOME NINE HUNDRED YEARS SOLDD2RS HAVE MANNED THE FORTRESS WITH THE CORPS, OR ITS ANTECEDENTS, WELL REPRESENTED — AS WE STDLL ARE TODAY YEOMAN WARDERS, or Waiters as they were once called, originated soon after the Tower of London was completed, about the year 1100 A D ; employed as warders over the prisoners, as keepers of the gates and defenders of the im- pressive fortress. However, one of their main duties these days is to act as guides and very good they are too. There are at present four ex-RAOC Yeoman Warders at the Tower. RQMS Pop Davies, RQMS Rory Crosier, RQMS Brian D'Arcy and Conductor Norman Jackson. Our photograph shows -Yeoman Warders Jackson, Davies and D'Arcy photo- graphed near the White Tower. en The south west elevation of The W h i t e Tower, built in flint and stone, from which the popular name derives. Interesting to compare it with the early etching—though even then the Tower was some five hundred years old. Ex-members of the Corps now Yeoman Warders of the Tower. i Yeoman Warders (there are thirty seven of them) are not to be j confused with the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the I Guard, although their costumes are very similar. In fact they i are automatically members of that body though their full-time duties at the Tower leave little time for other ceremonial. They were, in fact, in being long before the Yeomen of the Guard; their Fellowship is the oldest of any known Association, with unbroken descent, carrying out the same duties from century to century to this present day. As the records, or ' pipe rolls' as they are called, were not kept in early years there is no complete roll of warders, , the earliest name recorded being, appropriately enough. " Jack ; of London" in the fourteenth century. It was not until 1485 ! that Henry VII formed the Yeomen of the Guard after the I Battle of Boswell Heath in the first year of his reign; the ! Yeoman Warders of the Tower were then incorporated into the Guard. Until 1826 a Warder bought his appointment for some £300, hence the toast ' May you never die a Warder'; if a Warder died in harness then the greater amount of his money was lost. For example a day in the records, 17th February 1713, shows that a Warder who surrendered his position received £262.50 the remainder was divided, from the Constable (£21) to the Governors servant 25p—but alas if a Warder died in office then the Constable received the £262.50, with the rest divided as before. One of the many ancient ceremonies still carried out by the Warders is that of locking the Tower at night; the Ceremony of the Keys. This ancient ceremonial has been carried out in one form or another for over seven hundred years. The Chief Warder would proceed from the Byward Tower to collect a small armed escort from the main Tower Guard, then proceed to lock up from the Bulwark Tower inwards. Once all the doors were secured the password or watch word, came into operation. This was carried out at dusk until the Duke of Wellington, then Constable, altered the timing from dusk to twenty two hundred hours though the ritual remains the same. . The Corps has the only serving officer who actually lives and works in the Tower; Lieutenant Colonel John Feathers, rejoicing in the title of The Receiver of Fees as well as being Ordnance Officer and Deputy Governor (Administration). He is responsible, as sub-accountant to the Department of the Environ- (Continued on page 319.) The Tower in the mid Seventeenth C e n t u r y — a n etching by courtesy of the British M u s e u m . T h e W h i t e Tower dominates as it does today. — 305 — |
| Book number | R0403a |