There are 36 Beefeaters - or "Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London", to give them their full name- plus a Yeoman gaoler and a Chief Warder.

The Warders were originally established in 1485 as King Henry VIII's bodyguards and the Beefeater nickname is thought to have stemmed from jealousy at the special privileges they enjoyed: regardless of what the common people were enduring, the wardens always got their daily ration of meat. In 1813, the men on duty were allotted 18lb of mutton, 16lb of veal and 24lb of beef per day between them.

Though their "official" duties are to look after prisoners in the Tower and to guard the Crown Jewels, in reality the Beefeaters act as tour guides. All new Warders have to learn all about the Tower and its history to ensure that they can deal with the myriad questions posed by the 2.5 million visitors who come every year.

The best-known duty of the Wardens is taking part in the daily Ceremony of the Keys, which has taken place every night at 10pm since the 14th century. The Chief Warder meets the Escort of the Key and they secure the Tower’s main gates. When they return to the Bloody Tower archway, they are halted by the sentry and asked to identify themselves. After this, the Chief Warder puts the keys away and the Last Post is sounded. The only time this ceremony was interrupted was during an air raid during the second world war, when incendiary devices blew the Chief and Escort over, after which they finished their duties… unhurt.

All Warders have to have at least 19 years of service with good conduct as a senior non-commissioned officer from the Army, RAF, Royal Marines or Royal Navy. New Beefeaters have to take an oath of allegiance, which dates back to 1337, on Tower Green after it is closed to the public. After the ceremony, he is toasted by the Chief Warder, who raises a ceremonial pewter punchbowl, and declares, "May you never die a Yeoman Warder".

Two uniforms

The term "beefeater" also applies to the hats worn by the Wardens. Their famous scarlet and gold dress uniforms date from 1552 but are only worn on State occasions. While on duty at the Tower, they wear blue "undress" uniform, granted to them by Queen Victoria in 1858. The Warders are armed with a haberd or pike, known as a partisan, while the Chief Warder carries a staff topped with a silver model of the White Tower and the Yeoman Gaoler has a ceremonial axe.

The Warders and their families get a grace-and-favour residence at the Tower (the little houses facing Tower Green) but must own another home to retire to.

Yeoman of the Guard

Yeoman Warders should not be mistaken for the Yeoman of the Guard - a completely separate unit of Royal Bodyguards, created by Henry VII in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This confusion dates from the Gilbert & Sullivan opera, The Yeoman Of The Guard or The Merryman and His Maid, written in 1888, about the events in the life of a Colonel Fairfax during the last days of his imprisonment in the Tower. However, in giving it a title, WS Gilbert got his Yeomans mixed up.

Despite this musical muddle, the opera has been performed four times in the moat of the Tower itself, with the real executioner's bell tolling at the appropriate moments.

Like the Beefeaters, the duties of the Yeoman are mainly ceremonial nowadays: they accompany the Queen to the annual Royal Maundy Service and attend her at investitures and summer Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace. Their most famous duty is to search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster prior to the State Opening of Parliament, a tradition that dates back to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow it up.