While their role is usually confined to the Tower of London, the Yeomen Warders do take part in one State ceremony. At Coronations, they form a guard of honour inside the annexe at Westminster Abbey. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ The guards at the Tower of London are called Yeoman Warders. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right. There are twelve Yeomen Warders. The Queen's Body Guard, known as the Yeomen of the Guard, are a bodyguard of the British Monarch. There are 73 Yeomen of the Guard, all of whom are former officers and sergeants of the British Services. The initials ER on the their uniforms stand for Elizabetha Regina (Regina is latin for queen). The initials refer to Elizabeth the Second, who is the present Queen

The Yeomen of the Guard were formed in 1485 by King Henry VII. After his victory at the Battle of Bosworth, he gathered a group of soldiers together to become his personal bodyguard together and they accompanied him wherever he went as his nearest guard. The State dress uniforms of Yeomen of the Guard are almost identical to those of the Yeomen Warders, but the Yeomen of the Guard can be distinguished by their cross belts worn from the left shoulder. The name Beefeaters is often thought to come from the French word - 'buffetier'. (Buffetiers were guards in the palace of French kings. They protected the king's food.) However, the name Beefeater is more likely to have originated from the time when the Yeomen Warders at the Tower were paid part of their salary with chunks of beef. This took place right up until the 1800s. Yeomen Warders working at the Tower of London, are usually seen wearing the blue undress uniform (pictured left) granted to them by Queen Victoria in 1858.

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