Kirkc's Lambs
Preserved but no longer current.
The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, so called from their colonel, Percy Kirke (c. 1646-91). The regiment was originally known as the Tangier Regiment, the badge of which was a Pascal Lamb, the crest of the house of Braganza, in compliment to Queen Catherine, to whom they were a guard of honour in her progress to London. There was an ironical turn to the nickname as "Kirke's Lambs" were notoriously a tough lot.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Kirkc's Lambs” mean?
The Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, so called from their colonel, Percy Kirke (c. 1646-91). The regiment was originally known as the Tangier Regiment, the badge of which was a Pascal Lamb, the crest of the house of Braganza, in compliment to Queen Catherine, to whom they were a guard of honour in her progress to London. There was an ironical turn to the nickname as "Kirke's Lambs" were notoriously a tough lot.
Is “Kirkc's Lambs” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.