This excellent painting by Daniel Cunliffe shows the uniforms worn by privates and NCOs of the 79th Cameron Highlanders before the Crimean War. They were a kilted regiment but two figures wear trews. The figure on the left, named as Sergeant Major John Mackay shows the rank of sergeant-major on both sleeves, four silver stripes and an embroidered Victorian crown. His jacket is an undress shell jacket worn in drill order, scarlet with dark green collar and cuffs which was the privilege of officers and senior NCOs. The next two figures wear the white shell jacket worn in drill order by sergeants, corporals and privates. Sgt-Major Mackay’s trews are of the Cameron Erracht tartan and he has a glengarry cap which can be seen from different angles on the next two figures. He was entitled to carry a broadsword slung from a white shoulder belt bearing a regimental gilt plate of the 1840 pattern. He and the two sergeants have crimson sashes on the left shoulder, the same way as the officers. Mackay’s sash is fuller and bunched up.
The next figure with his back to us, is a private dressed in the white jacket, glengarry cap with a red toorie, and trews with white spats (barely visible). The kilted sergeant in a white jacket, named as William Simpson, has three red chevrons on each arm and holds a musket which is a shortened version of the 1842 smooth bore Lovell percussion musket. His bayonet is hung from the white waist-belt. His sporran is grey goat-hair with five black tassels and a copper cantle that has a silver badge, LXXIX and a wreath. His green and red hose are kept up with scarlet garters and he has white spats. His cap has a regimental badge of St Andrew with his cross inside a wreath of thistles, the number 79 beneath, and metal rank badge above, as seen in the photo of Colour Sergeant Leighton.
The central figure of Sergeant Colin Campbell in review order is a light company NCO, having a green hackle on his feather bonnet instead of the white hackle worn by the others. He also has a whistle on a chain attached to his white shoulder belt. He has a sergeant’s jacket which does not have the white lace across the chest like the rank and file. It is double-breasted and has buttons in pairs. His rank chevrons are silver lace, on each arm, and he has large white worsted shoulder wings, red with white stripes, and green shoulder straps. He does not have white spats as he is in review order; he has buckled shoes instead of boots.
The piper is half hidden so his uniform is described in the Pipers section. The next figure, holding an axe is a pioneer, Private John Dakers, who can be compared with the pioneer sketched by Raffet in 1847. This man’s apron is a more business-like brown leather which partially conceals the rank-and-file pattern jacket that has horizontal white lace in pairs across his chest. He displays a good-conduct chevron on his right forearm and we can see the red slash flap on his green cuff that has white button-hole loops in pairs. Around his waist is a white belt with a black pouch on the front, and a bag of tools on his back, held on with white shoulder straps. There is no visible sign of a musket which suggests that he was a non-combatant. He and the private next to him have foul weather covers on their feather bonnets.
Private Alcorn, with his back to us, is in marching order, wearing neatly organised valise and rolled greatcoat with covered mess-tins strapped on. He has a white leather shoulder belt on his left shoulder to support a black leather ammunition pouch on the small of his back. Prior to 1850 privates had a similar white belt on the right shoulder for the bayonet but after that date the bayonet was hung from a white waist-belt.
A comparison with the Hayes print of 1846 reveals that the fly plaid is no longer worn with the valise equipment, although the private on the extreme right, in guard order, is wearing one without the valise. The lack of a plaid meant that the original full belted plaid worn by Highlanders was by this time reduced to the little kilt, or philibeg (Gaelic - fheilidh beag).
The painting is 5ft wide by 3ft 6ins deep. It was missing for many years but rediscovered in 1979 when visitors from New Zealand saw a black and white reproduction at Fort George and told the Regimental Secretary that they possessed the original back home. One of the visitors was the granddaughter of Sergeant Major John Mackay, the man on the left of the painting. The family still had Mackay’s shell jacket and Glengarry cap. Cunliffe based the painting on sketches he made at Chobham Camp in 1853. Other paintings based on his time at the camp include ‘The Sword Dance’ and ‘A Piper of the 79th Highlanders’. The painting seen here was thought to have been acquired by the adjutant of the regiment, Lieutenant Henry Mackay, elder brother of John, when he left the regiment in 1854.
The information was gained from an article by Dr Diana M Henderson in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research vol LX no.244 (Winter 1982)
