Yeoman

Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labour, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as yeoman's work. Thus yeoman became associated with hard toil.

Yeoman was also a rank or position in a noble household, with titles such as Yeoman of the Chamber, Yeoman of the Crown, Yeoman Usher, and King's Yeoman. Most of these, including the Yeomen of the Guard, had the duty of protecting the sovereign and other dignitaries as a bodyguard, and carrying out various duties for the sovereign as assigned to his office.

In modern British usage, yeoman may specifically refer to

• a member of a reserve military unit called a yeomanry, similar to the militia, traditionally raised from moderately wealthy commoners in England and Wales, and today part of the Territorial Army;
• a member of the Yeomen of the Guard
• a member of the Yeomen Warders of the Tower of London
• a non-commissioned officer usually with the rank of staff sergeant or Warrant Officer Class 1 in the Royal Corps of Signals in the British Army, an appointment achieved upon completion of a 14-month technical course.

In the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard, a yeoman is a rating usually with secretarial, clerical, payroll or other administrative duties. The first women in the U.S. Navy were Yeomen in World War I.

In the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and other maritime forces which follow British naval tradition, a Yeoman of Signals is a signalling and tactical communications petty officer.