Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) - "Steady, The Buffs!"

"Steady, The Buffs!"

This famous cry has been rumoured by many to have been uttered on the field of battle, but it was actually born on a garrison parade ground. In 1858, the 2nd Battalion was stationed in Malta and quartered with the 21st Royal (North British) Fusiliers. Lieutenant John Cotter, Adjutant of the 2nd Buffs, had formerly served as a Sergeant Major. Lieutenant Cotter would not brook any disarray on the parade ground from his raw recruits, shouting "Steady, The Buffs! The Fusiliers are watching you!" This greatly amused the Fusiliers who took to calling out “Steady, The Buffs!” on the slightest provocation, first in Malta and later whenever the two regiments met from then on. The phrase caught on and was soon shouted whenever The Buffs marched by. It then passed into common usage, even appearing in Rudyard Kipling's novel Soldiers Three (1888) and his play Pity Poor Mama.

Among several characters in literature and television who have uttered the phrase are: Lord Peter Wimsey, Rab C. Nesbitt and