London, July 29 - Two years after the British army abandoned a proposal to raise a Sikh regiment, the country's reining monarch has got her first Sikh bodyguards.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's 83-year-old sovereign, will be guarded by two turbaned and bearded men in their 20s.

The smiling photographs of Signaler Simranjit Singh, 26, and Lance Corporal Sarvjit Singh, 28, were splashed across the pages of British newspapers, shown posing with their guns inside Buckingham Palace, the Queen's sprawling London residence.

Simranjit Singh, who serves with the 21st Signal Regiment based in Chippenham, Wiltshire, took over his royal duties in May.

He was joined later by Sarvjit Singh, who serves with the 3rd Regiment Army Air Corps based in Wattisham, Suffolk.

The two men have been allowed to keep their turbans, long hair and beards in their new jobs.

Leading members of Britain's Sikh community welcomed the move as 'long overdue', pointing out that Queen Victoria used to have Sikh personal guards.

'I am really very pleased - there is quite a long tradition of links between the British royal family and Sikh soldiers,' said Resham Singh Sandhu, who is a deputy lord lieutenant of Leicestershire county, a royal appointment.

Sandhu, whose father won gallantry medals for services in the British army in World War I, said the number of Sikhs in the British army was steadily increasing.