Life Guard, Mounted Trooper, Winter Dress, C1d

The Life Guards have a distinguished fighting record and have participated in most of the major battles and campaigns of the British Army. Their first action was in Maastricht in Holland in 1673 and they played a minor part in the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth's army at Sedgemoor in 1685. The Regiment was involved in wars in Europe,(the Austrian Succession, at Dettingen, Fontenoy, and later in the Napoleonic Wars); they played a leading role in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In 1882 elements of the regiment took part in the famous 'Moonlight Charge' at Kassassin in Egypt. The Life Guards fought in both World Wars, earning 28 Battle Honours in the Great War and 21 between 1939 and 1945.

The statuette depicts a mounted trooper of The Life Guards undertaking ceremonial duties outside the Horse Guards buildings in Whitehall. His dress uniform is very distinctive and originated in the 17th Century: The steel curass worn by both The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals is now the only ceremonial body-armour still worn by any British soldier. Their white metal helmet with brass ornamentation copies the 'Prince Albert' pattern (1842) and is completed with a white helmet plume made from horsehair.