THE IRISH GUARDS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 24, 14 June 1900, Page 6

THE IRISH GUARDS.

The Daily Chronicle announces that Lieutenant-Colonel F. J G. Ross, C.8., of Bladenf-burg, Rostrevor, County Down, has been appointed to command the new Regiment of Irish Guards. The Officer on whom this distinction has be«-n conferred is an Irishman and a Catholic. He is a Grand Juror f ( r the County Down, and is well known all over the county. He was born in 1848, and joined the Royal Artillery in 1868. In 1873 he was appointed lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, in which he was promoted major in 1889. With the guards he fought in the Soudan expedition of 1885, and took part in the actions at Ha«heen, Thakool, and Tamai, and for his services he received the medal with clasp and bronze star. Lately he has been on half-pay, but since the beginning of the present war he was temporarily appointed D.A.A.G. at Aldershot, where he is now serving.

The new Irish Guards are now only waiting for their uniforms to be made. As soon as that is done the embodying of the new regiment will begin ; and it is believed that the men will at first be temporarily stationed at St. John's Wood Barracks. There are already awaiting the embodiment 200 Irishmen out of the Grenadier Battalion now in London, and 90 out of the Coldstream Guards, 3rd Battalion, at Chelsea. All these men received a bounty of £2 each as a reward f( r joining the new regiment. The uniform of the new Irish Ouards will in all general respects be the same as that of the present Guards Bat the R I.G. will be readily recognisable. Just as the Grenadiers wear a red band, the Coldstreams a white band, and the Scots Guards a plaid band round their caps, her Majesty's Irisb will have a light green band. They are also to have a gilt Irish harp with shamrock on the collars of th« lr tunics, just as th« Grenadiers have the gilt hand grenade in II. nits. The question of plumes has not been settled. Ihe Scots Guard*, it is th"U«ht will have their plumes returned to them after the war, and in that o:u.e the priviledge of wearing plumes will be given to the Irish Guur.ls right away, in recognition of the bravery of the Irish soldiers, many of whom will join the ranks of the new guards. Should this be so the new plume w ill be a green one.