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:
“The whole body of what is now called moral or ethical truth existed in the golden age as abstract science. Or, if we prefer, we may say that the laws of Nature are the purest morality.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day.
Now spurs the lated traveller apace
To gain the timely inn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)