"Laying-up" the Colours (colour photo)

"Laying-up" the Colours. Military Colours, symbolic of the men who fought under them, were originally carried in battle as a rallying point for the troops. In the British Army this custom persisted until the nineteenth century, when it was discontinued. Nowadays a regiment going into battle leaves its colours behind. A custom which has obtained since about the middle of last century, when colours ceased to be the property of the colonel, is the ceremonial "laying-up" of the old colours in a public building upon the receipt of new. HRH the Duke of Gloucester, Colonel of the Scots Guards, is shown handing the old colours of the Scots Guards to the Dean at Worcester Cathedral, where they were to be "laid-up." Illustration for one of a set of 50 cigarette cards on the subject of Interesting Customs and Traditions of the Navy, Army and Airforce issued by Lambert & Butler in 1939.