Lamb

Lamb (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Lamm), the young of sheep. The Paschal Lamb or Agnus Dei is used as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (John i. 29), and “lamb,” like “flock,” is often used figuratively of the members of a Christian church or community, with an allusion to Jesus’ charge to Peter (John xxi. 15). The “lamb and flag” is an heraldic emblem, the dexter fore-leg of the lamb supporting a staff bearing a banner charged with the St George’s cross. This was one of the crests of the Knights Templars, used on seals as early as 1241; it was adopted as a badge or crest by the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple using another crest of the Templars, the winged horse or Pegasus. The old Tangier regiment, now the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment, bore a Paschal Lamb as its badge. From their colonel, Percy Kirke (q.v.), they were known as Kirke’s Lambs. The exaggerated reputation of the regiment for brutality, both in Tangier and in England after Sedgmoor, lent irony to the nickname.