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The Irish Guards (along with the rest of
the Household Division) have a unique rank structure. Where
the rest of the Army have Lance-Corporals who wear one chevron
and Corporals who wear two chevrons, the Guards have Lance-Corporals
who wear two chevrons and the rank of Lance-Sergeant who
is a full Corporal but who wears three chevrons and is senior
by appointment to a normal Corporal. The rank structure was
appointed by Queen Victoria who stated that her Guards would
not wear only one chevron when mounting guard outside the
Royal Palaces so she stated that the Lance-Corporal would
wear two chevrons. That left the problem of what the full
Corporal would wear to show that he was a full Corporal so
the rank of Lance-Sergeant was appointed. Even though the
Lance-Sergeant is only a full Corporal to the eyes of outside
Regiments and Corps, he still has full Sergeants' Mess privileges.
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