Female Beefeaters

[Matt308]

First woman Beefeater appointed to Tower of London - Yahoo! News

First woman Beefeater appointed to Tower of London


LONDON (AFP) - A woman is to overturn over 500 years of tradition by becoming the first-ever female Beefeater at the Tower of London, a newspaper reported

Beefeaters, a familiar sight to tourists in their red and gold uniforms, guard the tower, where the British crown jewels are kept, but also act as tour guides.

Up to now, the 35-strong group, also known as yeoman warders, has been all-male but now the authorities have broken with tradition.

"The Tower of London is in the process of appointing its first female yeoman warder," a spokeswoman for Historic Royal Palaces, which runs the tower, told the Sun newspaper.

"The successful candidate is currently serving in HM Forces and will join her new colleagues in the yeoman body at the Tower of London in summer 2007."

Beefeaters, who have to live at the tower, are former members of the armed forces who have served for a minimum of 22 years, the paper added.

Their nickname is thought to date back to the days when the yeoman warders were given a daily ration of meat.

The unnamed woman will earn 24,000 pounds (36,000 euros, 47,000 dollars) a year, the Sun said.

[pbfoot]

The topic is a little misleading

[timshatz]

Female beefeaters? Sounds like the building next to the "Mustang Ranch" in Vegas.

[plan_D]

The world has gone mad.

[Nonskimmer]

Another age-old tradition down the toilet. Aren't the Beefeaters all supposed to be retired sergeant majors from the paras or marines, or some such?

[Matt308]

I wasn't gonna comment on British affairs. Figured our Brit members would have enough to say.

[plan_D]

Britain is destroying tradition after tradition - next we'll be letting women in the RAF Regiment or Royal Marines <shudder>.

[Emac44]

Good God gentlemen. I am struck dumb. and that doesn't happen to often. Politcal correctness gone to the sublime and the ridiculous. I am sorry I just can not imagine a female Beefeater at the Tower of London and the traditions of the Beefeaters being thrown down and trampled due to political correctness

[Matt308]

Will you blokes build her a separate bathroom and changing room for her functions?

Sorry couldn't resist. I wish that this was limited to your country. Its NOT. I just read that the US Democrats that have recently been elected majority over across the pond are now going to seek removal of the military "dont ask dont tell" policy. That way if you are gay you can proclaim your bedroom habits to everyone as a defining parameter of your personal resume. Hoorah!!

[Emac44]

the world is getting sillier and sillier each and every day. politicans with political correct agendas no wonder such political organisation like Family First has come about in Australia. Family First are a christian based political party organized around Christian morals and placing the family First in politics etc. needless to say they have been vilifiled by such parties as the Greens who have as much morals as your average sewer rat would have. Family First Party comes from a variety of economic social backgrounds as well so it just not a right wing organisation using christianity as its basis politcally etc, i do happen to agree with Family First in many of their policies but not all of them but thats ok i despise the Greens any way so it evens itself out. particularly when Bob Brown leader of the Greens stood up in Parliament here and vilified George Bush and his war in Iraq and stated that Bush had killed innocents in Iraq etc. Needless to say Bob Brown supports abortion in all its forms including a particularly nasty one called partial birth abortion. i am not going into a debate about pros and cons on abortion but i am saying it as an example to the thinking of the Greens and lack of their own agendas and politcal thinking and correctness that i despise. i don't hold by the philosphy if it feels good do it etc. i am a hetro sexual male with a wife and family who come first and foremost in my way of life and i am tired of the political correct in this society who believe moralistically and politically i am out of tune with society. to that i say to hell with them but iam getting sick and tired of having to pay as a tax payer via my taxes funding for programs i despise and find totally abhorant to my way of life. what is wrong in what Family First has to say. nothing as yet i can see. Family first builds the nation not the divant of society etc. sorry gents i am a bit passionate about the family and how the middle of the road tax payer has been marginalized and put down by the political correct in society

[the lancaster kicks ass]

I agree this is stupid, as is all political correctness........

[Emac44]

Stupid. Lanc the world gets mired in this muck every day as far as i can see can't see the point why we have to deal with this crap. i blame germaine greer the stupid woman came back here a few days before steve irwin was killed and her statement after irwin's death was that nature had struck back in vengence. me thinks the sting ray got the wrong person. Irwin was likeable rogue Greer is just a fruitloop who has gone silly sniffing the gas from her burnt bra days

[Emac44]

And here is one for the political correct crowd Lanc. My ex wife has a intellectually disabled son from a previous marriage before i married her etc. my eldest step son. well the boy is profoundly disabled but all the same a great kid. i will not go into details about his disability but my ex wife was at a time doing a course in disability studies and the Co-ordinator of the course was going on about ethics dealing with disabled persons. this co-ordinator went onto claim that if a medication was developed to cure a childs or adults intellectual disability under ethics no parent could force this medication on the child/adult etc. i near spat my chips across the floor when my ex wife told me this. needless to say the co-ordinator didn't have a disabled child of her own nor had she worked predominately in the field with disabled children or aduts but was only an administrator in some obscure departmental office working for the State Government of Queensland. the other part was she was unmarried and didn't have kids at all. she had come straight out of university and had no first hand knowledge about dealing with intellectually disabled children or aduts. and here was this prim faced idiot trying to teach ethics to parents of disabled children. You can imagine my reply to all of this Lanc. give me the medication and we will see how far ethics goes with either my ex wife or myself administrating the medication if it exsisted at all to a boy that would have had a different life style if such medication exsisted. who the hell are these idiots telling parents what is right or wrong for the benefit of their children

[Matt308]

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the world's going mad because no one will fight against it, through fear of being politically incorrect!