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silver greyhound |
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The badge of office of the Corps of Queen\'s Messengers. A badge of office was granted by Charles II to the (then) King\'s Messengers at the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. This was in recognition of their loyalty to the royalist cause during the English civil war and subsequent ‘commonwealth’ period. However, until the first King\'s Messengers’ passports were issued in 1900, this badge also served to identify them as British diplomatic couriers when on their travels abroad. Until 1714 the badge was embroidered onto the tunics worn by the messengers but thereafter it was made of metal and worn about the neck in the manner of a senior decoration, as it still is today. It consists of a garter blue ribbon with a royal coat of arms pendant and beneath it a silver greyhound. (Both the shape of the royal coat of arms and the cypher on it vary with each new monarch, thereby underlining the fact that the messenger\'s loyalty has been transferred to the current sovereign.) The greyhound, of course, symbolizes ‘despatch’. |
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| Other Terms : receiving line | eyeball-to-eyeball | London Gazette |
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