27th Regiment of Foot

Officer's Jacket, Light Company 1813

27th Foot

The pictures of this jacket appeared in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research no.88 published in 1943 and written up by Percy Sumner. The jacket came to light when the curator of the Hereford City Museum was asked, in 1942, to go through the contents of the attic at a family mansion at Canon Froome. The jacket and other accoutrements belonged to Capt Charles Parsons who entered the 27th as an ensign on 4th April 1805. He was killed in the Peninsular War in 1813 at a battle near Alcoy in Spain.
The jacket is scarlet with very pale buff facings. The gold laced wings on the shoulders are flank company embellishments and show signs of having had stringed bugle badges on them. The cloth on the wings is scarlet and the lace is French check. The collar is 3.5 inches high with a gilt button and twists loops. The lapels have ten buttons each with twist loops. There is more gold lace on the lower edge of the jacket, extending round the back to follow the edge of the turnbacks. There is a small triangle of gold lace in the centre of the back of the jacket flanked by buttons. Also on the back are two pocket flaps with white piping and four buttons. Although the turnbacks are plain, a pattern book of 1814 states that gold bugle badges were sewn on.
The cuffs are decorated with four gilt buttons and twist loops. The buttons all over the jacket, 44 in all, are the same size, gilt, and have the castle with ENNISKILLEN written above and 27 below. Along with the jacket was a shoulder belt with a gilt rectangular plate 3.25" x 2.5" bearing the castle badge with scroll below inscribed ENNISKILLEN and a silver stringed bugle below that.
Also found with the jacket were: A crimson silk flank company sash with cords and tassels. A water-bottle shaped like an 8 sided medicine bottle 8.5 inches high by 3.5ins wide, with detachable metal cup fitting over the bottom part, and furnished with a light brown leather cage to hold it, and a long strap for wearing it over the shoulder. A haversack of brown leather, 10 ins deep, 11 ins wide at the top and 9ins at the bottom with a flap 4.25ins deep, suspended by a buff leather strap 1.5 ins wide which has a plain brass buckle and slide. A dirk, with triangular blade, 11.5 ins long, in a leather scabbard with gilt mounts carried in a cord sling 2ft long with a tassel at each end.

Uniforms | Regimental Details