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The Yeomen
Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and
Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary,
popularly known as the Beefeaters, are ceremonial guardians of the Tower of
London. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners in
the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels. They have also conducted
guided tours of the Tower since the Victorian era.
All warders
are retired from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth realms and must be former
warrant officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the
Long Service and Good Conduct medal. Since 2011, there have been 37 Yeomen
Warders and one Chief Warder.
The Yeomen
Warders are often incorrectly referred to as Yeomen of the Guard, which is
actually a distinct corps of Royal Bodyguards.
Although
the Yeomen Warders are often referred to as Yeomen of the Guard, which is a
distinct corps of Royal Bodyguards of the British monarch, they are in fact a
separate entity within this guard. Gilbert and Sullivan's opera, The Yeomen of
the Guard (1888), is set in the 16th century, an earlier era before the two
corps were split apart; it concerns what are today the Yeomen Warders.
Beefeater
The name
Beefeater is of uncertain origin, with various proposed derivations. The term
was common as early as the 17th century as a slang term for the English in
general.[4] The earliest connection to the Royal Household came as a reference
to the Yeomen of the Guard by Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who
frequented the Court in 1669. In referring to the Yeomen of the Guard, he
stated, "A very large ration of beef is given to them daily at the court,
and they might be called Beef-eaters". The Beefeater name was carried over
to the Yeomen Warders, due to the two corps' outward similarities and the
Yeoman Warders' more public presence. Beefeaters also commonly produced and
consumed broths made of beef, which were described as rich and hearty. These
broths were known, at the time, as bef or beffy.
While this
is the most-cited etymology, including by the Corps themselves, some
etymologists have noted the term's similarity to hláf-æta, the Old English term
for a menial servant, lit. "loaf-eater", the counterpart of hlaford
"loaf-warden" and hlæfdige, which became "lord" and
"lady" respectively.Claims that the name derives from buffetier (an
Old French term meaning 'a waiter or servant' at a sideboard) are often
mentioned, in Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language
(published 1879–1882), for example, since one role of Beefeaters was to attend
the king at meals; this etymology book, however, concludes that there is
"not the faintest tittle of evidence" for this conjecture.Other
reliable sources also indicate that buffetier is unlikely to have been the
source of the word.
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Beefeaters at Tower of London face job cuts amid
coronavirus crisis
First time in more than five centuries that tower’s
guards threatened with redundancies
Jasper
Jolly
Mon 20 Jul
2020 11.21 BSTLast modified on Mon 20 Jul 2020 15.23 BST
Historic
Royal Palaces (HRP), the charity that looks after the palaces, faces a
shortfall of £98m this year, and it expects visitor numbers to take years to
recover to 2019 levels.
It is
thought to be the first time since Henry VII established the force in 1485 that
the yeoman warders, the ceremonial guardians of the tower popularly known as
Beefeaters, face the threat of compulsory redundancy. It is understood that two
Beefeaters have so far opted to take voluntary redundancy, but further cuts are
possible.
Heritage
sites across the UK face threats to their future as the pandemic reduces
visitor numbers.
New
forecasts for the 2020 financial year suggest HRP will make revenues of only
£12m, compared with the £110m forecast before the pandemic. There are about 800
visitors to the Tower of London a day, compared with as many as 15,000 on busy
summer days in previous years. The Tower has capacity for about 1,000 visitors
with social distancing.
The charity
has already carried out a programme of voluntary redundancies, but it is likely
to require further job losses to reduce its wage bill to below £30m for the
financial year, compared with more than £50m in the previous 12 months. Staff
have taken a 20% pay cut from July to October, with a recruitment freeze and
unpaid leave also implemented to cut costs.
As well as
the Tower of London, the affected employees work at Hampton Court, Kensington
Palace, the Banqueting House and Kew Palace, as well as Hillsborough Castle in
Northern Ireland.
The
pressure at the Tower of London is particularly acute because of its role in
protecting the crown jewels, which include the regalia used at the coronation
of Queen Elizabeth and likely to be used by her successors. The fixed security
costs of protecting the crown jewels are covered by the charity, with no
contributions by either the government or the royal family.
HRP has not
received specific financial aid from the government during the pandemic.
However, the charity has gained permission from the government for a £26m loan
from its bank on commercial terms.
John
Barnes, the HRP chief executive, said: ‘‘Historic Royal Palaces is a self-funded
charity. We depend on visitors for 80% of our income. The closure of our six
sites for almost four months has dealt a devastating blow to our finances,
which we expect to continue for the rest of the financial year and to be
compounded by the slow recovery of international tourism. We urgently need the
public to support us by visiting our sites now they have reopened.
“We have
taken every possible measure to secure our financial position, but we need to
do more to survive in the long term. We simply have no choice but to reduce our
payroll costs.”
The
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and Buckingham Palace have
been contacted for comment.
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