The Ravens of the Tower

What this has to do about anything I'd be hard pushed to

tell you except that I like ravens, particularly these ones

which I first saw when I was a small child living in London

after the war.

According to legend, if the ravens that inhabit the Tower

of London were lost or flew away, the Crown will

fall and Britain with it.

Posing with the Beef Eaters.

This belief dates back to the dark ages when, after a monumental

punch up between Matholwch, King of Ireland and

Bendigeldfram, King of the Britons the loser's head

was cut off and buried beneath the White Hill (where the

White Tower now stands) facing towards France as a talisman

to protect Britain from foreign invasion.

Over the centuries the superstition has been added to,

amended, tweaked and generally bigged up and to this day

a flock of at least eight ravens is held in permanent

captivity at the Tower where they live like kings.

No point in taking chances after all.

Who's a pretty boy?

But there's one little known fact concerning the Ravens which

dates back to the second world war - the Ravens are all

enlisted soldiers of the Crown.

After the heavy bombing of London only one Raven was able

to survive the Blitz and so Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime

Minister at the time, ordered more ravens to be brought to the

Tower to bring the flock up to it's correct size and from then

on all the birds were issued with attestation cards in the same

way as serving soldiers and the police.

Looks like misconduct to me!

And, just like soldiers, the Ravens can be dismissed for

unsatisfactory conduct.  Caw, stone the crows!