The officer wears a French grey jacket with silver braid, the elaborate hussar-style as adopted by the light cavalry regiments of all three presidencies. The colouring of this Ackermann print has given the facings as red, but the official colour for the Bengal Cavalry was orange (except for the 5th who had black). When the regiment was raised in 1805 the jackets were red with yellow facings but changed to French grey with orange facing c1810. The shako was worn by British officers as from c1815, and in 1835 changed from a star badge to the Maltese cross pattern hinted at in this illustration. All the fittings on the shako were silver except for the badge and the cap-lines. The plume in most portraits is shown as white cock feathers with red beneath. The red and white plume in this print is undefined so may be feathers or horsehair.
The trousers are dark blue and have a double silver stripe. They match the shabraque and sabretache which are dark blue edged in silver lace and have silver embroidery, based around a BLC monogram, with VII on the sabretache. Beneath the monogram is a red scroll embellished with silver laurel leaves. The scroll would normally have a battle honour but the 7th BLC did not have one until 1853 when PUNJAUB was conferred on them. The sword-belt and slings are all silver with an orange stripe down the middle. The pouch-belt is of a similar pattern but wider, and has silver pickers and chains, as well as a silver pouch on the back. The gold and crimson striped girdle is only just visible below his left forearm.
The officers behind him are Indian, wearing plainer jackets and peakless shakos with smaller plumes. They have plain black leather pouch-belts and a red stripe on their trousers. The sabretache that we can see on the right, is plain black leather. This print was based on a painting by Henry Martens and published by Ackermann on 25 Mar 1845. It is not known why Martens chose the 7th as they were not the most prestigious of the ten regiments of Bengal Light Cavalry. In fact they narrowly avoided disbandment in 1848, for lack of discipline.
This print formed the basis of a painting of Captain Harington of the 5th BLC.
