Tradition asserts that it was originally the Body-Guard of the Scottish Kings.
It bore, in 1633, St. Andrew’s Cross, with Thistle and Crown; and, in 1751, the distinction of the Colours of 2nd Battalion was a flaming ray of gold from the upper corner of each Colour to the centre.
It bears the Royal Cypher within the Collar of St. Andrew, and the Crown over it; also the Thistle and Crown, with the motto of the Order, “Nemo me impune lacessit.”
It captured a Colour from the Moors at the defence of Tanjier, in 1680, for which it received its title in 1684; it also captured the Duke of Monmouth’s Standard at the Battle of Sedgmoor, 1685.
It is nicknamed “Pontius Pilate’s Body Guard,” from its antiquity.
SECOND FOOT.
| Titles. | Colour of | Campaigns, Battles, &c. | |||
| Uniform. | Facings. | ||||
| The Tanjier, or Queen’s Own Regiment. 1661–1684 The Queen Dowager’s Regiment. 1684–1703 The Queen’s Royal Regiment. 1703–1715 The Princess of Wales’s Own Regiment. 1715–1727 The Queen’s Own. 1727–1751 2nd, the Queen’s Royal. 1751—— | Scarlet, 1661—. | Sea-Green, 1661–1768. Blue, 1768—. | Tanjier, 1662–1683. Boyne, 1690. Aughrim, 1691. Neer-Landen, 1693. Namur, 1695. Flanders, 1692–1695. Tongres, 1703. Germany, 1703–1704. Almanza, 1707. Spain, 1704–1708. Helder, 1799. | Bergen, 1799. Egmont-op-Zee, 1799. Mandora, 1801. Alexandria, 1801. Egypt, 1801. Vimiera, 1808. Flushing, 1809. Corunna, 1809. Salamanca, 1812. Vittoria, 1813. Pyrenees, 1813. | Nivelle, 1813. Toulouse, 1814. Peninsula, 1808–1814. Affghanistan, 1839. Ghuznee, 1839. Khelat, 1839. Cabool, 1842. Taku Forts, 1860. Pekin, 1860. |
The Regiment was raised in England to garrison Tanjier, part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II.; but it was partly formed at Tanjier from the Duke of Gloucester’s, Earl of Bristol’s, Lord Newborough’s, and Colonel Green’s Regiments in the Spanish service.
It received on its formation the Badge of the “Paschal Lamb,” the crest of the House of Braganza, and Sea-green facings, that being the favourite colour of Queen Catherine.
It bears the Royal Cypher within the Garter, and Crown over it; and the “Paschal Lamb” with the mottoes “Pristinæ virtutis memor” and “Vel exuviæ triumphant”; also “the Sphinx” for Egypt, 1801.