Derby XVI 1937

An article in Bulletin no 2 (1950) of the Military Historical Society tells the history of the Derby ram along with this photo. The article is written by J Paine who was in the Channel Island before the War and saw the Trooping of the Colour at Guernsey. The 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters were stationed there after having been abroad for twenty years. He remembered that the tourists were more interested in the ram than anything else in the parade.
Each 'Derby' is numbered and Derby XVI was posted to the regiment in 1937. He was no longer alive in 1950. The picture clearly shows his Indian Mutiny medal but the article does not describe the colours of the jacket or shabraque which is presumably red with a gold lace edge.
Derby I was found tethered to a stake in a temple compound when the 95th were attacking Kotah in 1858. At the suggestion of the CO, Lt-Col J Raines, a man named Cody was told to capture the ram. After a period of hard service with the 95th, Derby I was presented with his medal at Poona in 1862 but the next year he was found drowned at the bottom of a well in Hyderabad. Col Raines painted his portrait for the officer's mess.
The third ram was presented to the regiment by the Maharajah of Kashmir in the 1860s and had 4 horns. The skull of Derby IV is a silver mounted snuff box in the officer's mess. Since the 1880s the rams have come from the Duke of Devonshire.

Regimental Mascots | Regimental details