Colonel Peter Pemberton OBE, Coldstream Guard. Ensign 1971 - 1979
The officer below Clerk of the Cheque and Adjutant is the Ensign and was added by Charles II. Thom, in his Book of the court when speaking of the duties of the Ensign of the Guards says: - “But, though such an appointment was then (1668) made and has, continued ever since, there does not exist the smallest evidence that the Corps ever possessed either Banner or Standard.” The late learned antiquary could not, at the time he wrote this, have seen the Order Book of the Guard at St James’s Palace, for one of the first entries therein is as follows:- “In consequence of the death of Mr Jno Glover, late Secretary of the Earl of Macclesfield, his lordship ordered that the Standard, books &c (sic) belonging to the Corps and kept by him be now given up, and that they be considered in future the property of the Corps, and kept as such by the Secretary for the time being.” The great fire in St. James’s Palace occurred 21 January 1809: it's reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the Standard was amongst the property destroyed. According to Chamberlayne’s 'Anglice Notitia' for 1672 the Standard of the Guard was “a Cross of St George and likewise four bends”, but the colours of the field and the charge are not given. By the regulations now in force the Ensign before appointment must have held a commission as a lieutenant-colonel or major in the army or marines or in the Indian army.
