The Soul of a Regiment — Talbot Mundy

SO LONG as its colors remain, and there is one man left to carry them, a regiment will continue the same old traditions behind it and the same atmosphere surrounding it that made brave men of its forebears. So, although the colors are not exactly the soul of the regiment, they are the concrete embodiment of it, and are even more sacred than the person of a reigning sovereign.

The First Egyptian Foot had colors -- and has them still, thanks to Billy Grogram; so the First Egyptian Foot is still a regiment. It was the very first of all the regiments raised in Egypt, and the colors were lovely crimson things on a brand-new polished pole, cased in the regulation jacket of black waterproof, and housed with all pomp and ceremony in the mess-room of the barracks...