Light Company Officer 1801

The turn of the 18th/19th century saw a radical change in infantry uniform. From c1797 the coat was fastened to the waist and the waistcoat dispensed with. Wide lapels also disappeared. The skirts or coat-tails were shortened, although the light infantry had been wearing shorter coat tails for several years. This illustration by Jaques Brouillet is in the Brown University Repository and shows a double breasted coat worn by an officer of the Light Company, King’s Regiment, when they served in the campaigns from 1798 to 1801. The regiment had a distinctive red edge to the front of the collar. The button-hole lace, gold for officers, was restricted to one on each side of the collar and three on each blue cuff.
In 1800 the bicorn hats worn by the infantry were replaced by the stove-pipe shako. It was made of lacquered felt, 8 inches high with a peak. The battalion companies had a large brass plate on the front but the light companies had a stringed bugle badge. The short plume on the front, or tufts as they were called in the regulations, were to be green for light infantry and rifle regiments, white for grenadiers and fusiliers, and white over red for battalion companies. The caps proved to be unsatisfactory and were altered in 1806 to remove the lacquering.
This officer wears white breeches and half gaiters. For 20 years or more the infantry had worn gaiters to the knee, made of black linen, later wool, with stiff tops. The stiff tops were removed in the mid 1780s and the light infantry adopted half gaiters. From 1790 white trousers were worn in hot climates.

Regimental Details | Uniforms