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This sketch by Percy Sumner from a Cowell Pattern Book illustrates the more formal uniform worn by officers of the 24th. The lapels are broader than before and richly decorated with silver lace and buttons in pairs. The coat fastened down the middle with hooks and eyes so that the buttons were merely decoration. The Prussian collar was cut square and worn closed so that turning the head was made difficult. The silver epaulettes were larger but still subject to the same rules as before concerning the wearing of one epaulette only, on the right shoulder, for captains and subalterns. The long coat-tails had white turn-backs with silver lace edges and a thin piping of green cloth. There is an embroidered star badge at the point where the turn-backs meet. The pockets at the back have a flap with three small silver loops, and the buttons are half hidden beneath the flap. The coatee was worn with pale blueish-grey cossack trousers trimmed with a wide silver lace stripe. The shako was the bell-topped type, 8 inches high with a tall plume at the front.
The heavily laced coatee was an expensive item which seemed to worry the authorities at Horse Guards, so much so that in February 1829 they ordered that officer's coats should be double-breasted and unlaced. For the 24th the new coatee remained laced only on the collar and cuffs, with silver buttons and epaulettes. Unfortunately for those officers who went to the expense of changing their uniforms, there was a new order the following year stating that all regular regiments should have gold lace. |
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