Golden Spurs
The officers of marine "mounted" units (that is to say those formerly using horses, or currently armored vehicles) have the privilege of wearing gold spurs for certain occasions. This differs from the usual French cavalry practice of wearing silver spurs. Tradition has it that Queen Victoria of England requested this distinction for the marine troops from Emperor Napoleon III to honor the branch after the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimea (1854) where marine infantry saved British troops from destruction.
Read more about this topic: Troupes De Marine
Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or spurs:
“Go, throng each other’s drawing-rooms,
Ye idols of a petty clique:
Strut your brief hour in borrowed plumes,
And make your penny-trumpets squeak:
Deck your dull talk with pilfered shreds
Of learning from a noble time,
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With mutual Flattery’s golden slime.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“The wand is will; thou, fancy, saddle art,
Girt fast by memory; and while I spur
My horse, he spurs with sharp desire my heart;”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)