GOLD-STICK IN WAITING, an officer of the British royal household who waits in close attendance upon the Sovereign and whose emblem of office is an ebony staff or stick with a gold head, engraved with the Sovereign's cypher and crown. The office was instituted in 1678 and was held exclusively by "Colonels of the Regiment" of regiments of Life Guards until 182o when the honour was extended to officers holding similar appointments in the Royal Horse Guards. Silver Stick in Waiting is the officer who stands near the Gold Stick "ready to relieve him." See Sir George Arthur, The Story of the Household Cavalry (1909).