Colours at the Alma 1854


This is a detail from a print showing the 42nd at the Battle of the Alma in the Crimean War of 1854. The way the Colours were carried into battle is vividly depicted. Ensigns and lieutenants were detailed to carry them, and if those officers were put out of action, sergeants would take up the task. The artist Robert Gibb has based the Colours on the tattered remains that were laid up in Dunkeld Cathedral. He has shown them as tattered here but as this was the first battle they were probably in better condition at that stage. These Colours were presented to the regiment in 1839 and carried throughout the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. They were finally decommissioned when the regiment received new Colours at Bareilly on 1 Jan 1861.


Regimental Details | Colours


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by Stephen Luscombe