Foot Guards
The Foot Guards is a group of regiments in the Household Division of the British Army
While regiments may have other distinguishing features, a simple method of identification is by observing the spacing of buttons on the tunic. The ascending number of buttons also indicates the order in which the regiments were formed, although the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, an ancestor of the Grenadier Guards, is younger than the regiment that now takes the name of the Coldstream Guards; the oldest continuously serving regiment in the British Army. There are various other methods of telling apart the different regiments - the colour of the plume, and what side it is worn on the bearskin, the collar badge and the shoulder badge. When all five regiments parade together, they are in the order Grenadier Guards on the right flank, then Scots Guards, Welsh Guards, Irish Guards and Coldstream Guards on the left flank. This is due to the fact that, although the Coldstream are ranked second in seniority, their motto is 'Nulli Secondus' ('Second to None').
There are two further Guards regiments in the Canadian Army, the Governor General's Foot Guards and the Canadian Grenadier Guards. Although the Governor General's Foot Guards has its buttons in pairs, compared to the single buttons of the Canadian Grenadier Guards, it is the more senior regiment; it is affiliated to the Coldstream Guards, and so wears a similar uniform.
The Federation Guard is a tri-service Australian ceremonial unit that performs similar functions to the five British and two Canadian regiments of foot guards.
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