Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters)

Haworth, 2018
July 2012.
At a concert in Millennium Square, Leeds.
“Beefeaters really did wear steel helmets in WWII. This was for Haworth in 2018.

Why

I’d bought a load of stuff in a blind auction from the theatrical suppliers and fancy dress warehouse, Homburgs, that was closing down. Amongst the stuff I bid and won on were the brilliant Beefeater uniforms that the iconic red and gold ceremonial Yeoman Warders wear. Those were stolen before I got to pick them up, but there were also two standard uniforms that they wear on a day to day basis when at the Tower of London.

The vast amount of stuff that Homburgs had over several floors of warehouse was vast. It actually makes me feel slightly sick to think how much variety of brilliant stuff I could have got and what I could have done with it.

I should have had two of each of these types of Yeoman Warder uniform.

When

Purchased March 2009. Enhanced May 2012.

Elements

There were only two tunics. as bought, so we had to buy trousers and add piping, Make hats from scratch, make belts, make bags. Much later I also made the Partisan Weapon, which isn’t necessary, but it’s an nice additional prop.

Amount of Work

Quite a bit of last minute work on making reasonably accurate brand new hats. We had hats meant for the stately red and gold uniforms but they didn’t match the uniform. Also had to move zip from bottoms of cushions to the top to make bags out of them. Piping on the trousers was fortunately done by my then girlfriend’s mother. As least she was good for something.

Level of use

London, most notably, but also York, Leeds and Haworth. Should only be seen in London of course.

Notes

I got engaged whilst wearing this on the Mall, in London. It was already doomed though and thank fuck it never came to be being married.

One of the tunics had genuine business cards for the Chief Yeoman Warder of the Tower of London. Up to that point we thought the uniforms were very good replicas.

Future use

It was last worn for the 4 day Platinum Jubilee weekend. I wore it to a different place on each of the 4 days. It’s hard to know when it would next be appropriate.

Making it

Spare felt top hats were the base for both hats.
The hat height was cut down and the curled brim was trimmed back.
New brims were made from cardboard and sandwiched the originals.
Lots of hat curve profile sections ready to be cut out of polystyrene..
The profiled sections were looped around the hat with a cardboard oval on top.
Thoroughly taped together, ready to be covered.
The covered brim. There was an ugly but necessary seam, but it was at the back.
Lots of zig zag cutting for the 8 sections per hat that required this edging. Unfortunately zig zag scissors were no good for this.
The red band helped with concealing the two parts and the rosette was attached to the finished hat.
There was a lot of Jubilee fever in 2012, so we used these Primark cushions for bags. The zips had to be moved from the bottom to the top and straps were attached.
I recreated the partisan head as a graphic and stuck it onto a Foamex backing that took a while to cut it. I used a couple of curtain tassels off eBay for part of the Partisan
The head of the partisan was purposefully and thoroughly smashed up against a bollard by some arsehole who borrowed it from me in Haworth

Further photos on tour

An early trip out with hats I got from the stolen uniform set before I’d made belts or accurate replica hats for this version of the uniform.
Provenance of authenticity found in one of the pockets!
Out and about on a fine summer evening in York.
Outside the Tower of London. Two Yeoman Warders came storming out to us. One said, “I served 22 years in the armed forces to earn the privilege of wearing this uniform! You can’t wear that here!” 
We were ordered to leave immediately. Fortunately we weren’t required to hand over the uniforms and the police weren’t called or anything.
Shortly after the Tower confrontation in June 2012.
After the Tower of London incident, we were slightly nervous about wearing this right outside Buckingham Palace. This was a just a few minutes after getting engaged to the woman in the photo, but fortunately we never married.