British Military Combatives in the Queen's Service

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by arnej

My first thought upon reading this was to refer to the organization by an address/location. (Okay, my FIRST first thought was Skyfall, but then it went on to "Whitehall" or "Bletchley Park" or *snicker* "Hogwarts".) They might have to send folk there for training, and need a out-of-the-way place to do research. Feels more British, and I really can't see them referring to the Queen in any way, so the chance slip of the tongue would not tie it to her or vice versa.

My first thought for a name was to use that of the isolated castle on the moor where they'd have their headquarters once they'd grown big enough and active enough that they'd need one. Does anyone know about a castle owned by the Royal Family that is located on a very lonely moor in Scotland somewhere? Preferably with a cool name?

Referring to the quick-reaction teams as 'QPR' or just the 'Rangers' ought to be safe enough. As mentioned earlier, those are sports teams and a chance overheard remark about football in the UK is not likely to raise any eyebrows. As long as people are careful to call their missions 'fixtures' or 'away games', their gear 'kit' and potential publicity that needs to be neutralised an 'own goal', the chances of anyone realising that the conversation is out of the ordinary is miniscule.

Even the use of the Queen's title as part of any organisation (which, I agree, is a bad idea) does not necessarily imply any personal involvement. No British Sovereign is connected to either the Queen's Park Rangers, the Scottish F.C. Queen's Park, the Queen's Foundation Birmingham or Freddie Mercury's Queen. And organisations like the Queen's Club, Queen's College in Cambridge or the Queen's Tavern have no closer relationship with Her Majesty than having had a long ago monarch as a patroness or simply someone they wished to honour.

Names which might jokingly refer to the organisation as a whole, used in conversation* between senior members, might be something like the 'Dee Club', 'Bacon Appreciation Society' and 'Newtonian Debate Club'. The academic activities might refer to 'Walsingham Scholars', as Brett suggested, or 'Marlowe Fellows'. Inevitably, the younger members would be prone to referring to the isolated castle (once they are important enough to learn of its existence) as 'Hogwarts', to people not in the know as 'Muggles', to their studies as 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' and to themselves and those others they know about within the conspiracy as the 'Order of the Phoenix' or 'Dumbledore's Army'.

*With new ones periodically surfarcing as one of them feels witty.