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and the Palace of Westminster as a reminder of the days
when it was brought by boat from the Tower of London.
The Royal Watermen and the Queen’s Bargemaster will be
on the Thames during the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant
on Sunday 3 June rowing
The Gloriana.
The Queen’s
Bargemaster wears a red tunic but with white stockings
and has more gold on his chest than the Royal Watermen.
The Bargemaster of the Company of Watermen and
Lightermen wears a blue coat with a black and gold
tri-corn hat while the Bargemaster of the Worshipful
Company of Fishmongers (who umpires Doggett’s Wager)
wears a similar livery and hat but his coat is burgundy (as
shown to the right). However if on the day you see a
fellow wearing a dark blue coat with a Doggett’s Badge on
the arm but no tri-corn, he’s the chap who won the wager
in the year of Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee. Got it?
Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant
Inspired by a Canaletto painting of an 18
th
century Thames
pageant, Gloriana, at 94 feet long and costing £1 million,
is the first royal barge to be built for 100 years. Gloriana
was visited by HM Queen Elizabeth at Greenland Dock
last month on the same day that she opened the newly
restored, nay rebuilt, Cutty Sark and the Royal River
exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in nearby
Greenwich. Some commentators remarked with surprise
that the Royal Watermen were seen to touch the Queen as
she boarded the barge!
The Royal Watermen
British sovereigns regularly travelled on the river Thames
on State occasions and between the Royal Palaces of
Windsor, Westminster, Hampton Court, Greenwich and
the Tower of London right up until the 19
th
century.
The men who rowed the Royal barges up and down the
river Thames were licensed watermen known as Royal
Watermen. Continuing one of the oldest appointments
in the Royal Household HM Elizabeth II still retains 24
Royal Watermen under the command of The Queen's
Bargemaster and they are still chosen from the ranks of
the Thames Watermen. Some but not all are past winners
of the Doggett’s Coat & Badge but for Royal duties they
wear a uniform consisting of breeches and a skirted
scarlet tunic with a silver gilt Royal Cypher known as a
plastrum on the front and back of the jacket. They also
sport a navy-black cap not dissimilar to a baseball cap,
scarlet stockings, white shirt and black buckled shoes.
The duties of the Royal Watermen are now purely
ceremonial and they earn an annual salary from the
crown of £3.50. Away from the river their duties consist
of acting as boxmen on Royal carriages during State
Visits, Royal weddings and Jubilees, and walking behind
The Queen's Bargemaster at Coronations. At the State
Opening of Parliament this month the Royal Watermen
and the Queen’s Bargemaster travelled on carriages
carrying the royal regalia between Buckingham Palace
The Royal Watermen with the Queen’s Bargemaster at the bow
Right: The Royal Watermen and Queen’s
Bargemaster guarding the royal regalia at
the State Opening of Parliament