Drumhorse 1899


The date of this photo is not certain but it must be after 1899 when the 7th DG received their collar badges. They left for South Africa in Feb 1900 and returned in 1904. The drummer is an old soldier with 4 slim chevrons in yellow cloth on his left fore-arm and a single medal. If each chevron represented 4 years good conduct then he had served at least 16 years in the regiment. This indicates that he may have joined up after the Egyptian campaign of 1882 in which the men earned two medals. The Boer War also earned the men two medals which means that this is the Indian General Service medal with red and blue stripes. The photo could be as late as 1904, certainly no later than 1906 when the white helmet plume was changed to black.

The drum banners had a very similar design to the ones carried c1855, having the Royal Arms surmounted by an unusual coronet. There is some disagreement about the colour of the drum banners. Many people assumed them to be black because of the colour of their regimental facings, and because of the unofficial name Black Horse. However, the author R G Harris wrote a series of articles about drumhorses in the Military Historical Society bulletins and in November 1963 covered the 7th DG. He stressed that the banners were in fact dark blue, not black. But he made a number of mistakes in the article including that the helmet plume was changed to black and white in 1906, when in fact it was black only. Thus his credibility is in question and one has to go by the numerous coloured reproductions available, most of which show black while the others are possibly dark blue. Two of these illustrations can be seen at Drumhorse c1910 and Mounted Band 1904. Another point of interest is the brass shoulder scale on his left shoulder (also one on the right) which was an unusual feature of the 7th DG musicians' uniform. These scales were discontinued around 1904. The skewbald horse was called Mick.


Regimental Band | Regimental details


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by Stephen Luscombe