Other Ranks, Guard Order 1844

These figures are in the background of the Martens print Officers 1844. They are in the process of changing guard. They have their great coats folded on their backs, a custom that remained in the Guards regiments until 1936. The artist seems to have remembered to include a sergeant at the last minute because the figure on the right, although he wears a sergeant's red sash round his waist (obviously painted over the belts), and white stripes on his sleeve, does not have a sword and bayonet on his belt, only a bayonet, like the privates. There is also confusion about the belts on the sergeant's back. He has a brass buckle on both the bayonet belt and the pouch belt. The buckles were only ever on the pouch belt, not on the bayonet belt.

Uniforms | Regimental Details