Drummer's Coatee 1848

This coat was written about by Percy Sumner in the SAHR journal no 80. It is a red coat with blue collar, cuffs and wings, pewter buttons and white lace decorated with royal blue fluer-de-lys designs. The design on the buttons has a crown over reversed VR cypher with a grenade underneath. What is puzzling is that Sumner states that this coat, along with 3 other drummers coats, is pre 1848. He argues that an order was issued in that year to remove the lace around the false pocket flaps on the back of the coat. He does not remark on the fact that the pocket flaps do not, in fact, have lace around them, so scuppering his own argument. This coat is more likely to be from the Crimean period as it matches contemporary pictures very closely.
The heavy fringes on both top and bottom of the collar conceal the blue facing colour and a grenade badge sewn on it. There are also heavy fringes on the edges of the wings which are blue but well covered in lace. The cuff flaps are red and have no white piping round the edge like earlier coats. See Sketch of Drummers Coatee 1830 and Photo of Drummers Coatee c1830 The cuffs themselves are pointed to match the 5 single lace chevrons on the sleeve. The grenade badges on the tails of the coat are edged in blue and are a more pleasing shape than the older 1830 style. But the thinner lace around the edges of the coat and turnbacks has reduced the fluer-de-lys design almost to a simple blue dash. It is interesting to see that there are real pockets on the inside of the coat-tails

Band | Regimental details