Officer and Other Ranks Mounted 1898

Richard Simkin produced a series in the 1890s called Military Types of which this was no.128. It was published in the Army & Navy Gazette on 6 Aug 1898. It is a fine picture of a mounted lieutenant in review order with a corporal to the left of the frame and privates on the right. There are errors in the uniforms, however, and they need to be mentioned. The Warwickshire Yeomanry hussar tunic worn by officers was distinguished from other hussars by the fact that the heavy Russia braid, or cord, that was used to form the silver lines across the chest and the Austrian knot on the cuffs was also used to edge the garment down the front and along the hem together with a slightly slimmer silver braid so that the edging was double braided. This does not show up here. The caplines are incorrect because from 1893 this regiment was distinguished by having plaited silver cord lines that hung in a loop on the right shoulder with the lines coming from the busby, under the left arm. The shabraque covering the saddle is shown with a silver laced edge that has a central blue stripe. This is incorrect as the lace was of silver oak-leaf pattern, without a stripe. He has also coloured the WYC cypher as gold embroidered to match the sabretache but an actual example of a shabraque shown on this page has silver lettering. The tunic worn by the other ranks is depicted as having large white cloth buttons on the drop loops at the end of the chest braiding. For many years there were no such buttons on the men's tunics and a photo of the uniform taken in 1902 shows buttons, but they are small and flat. The back view of a private shows two buttons on the back of the tunic at waist level but these were certainly not worn by officers and are unlikely to have been worn by other ranks. The other discrepancy is the lack of white braid trefoil on the men's collars which was a distinction of the regiment.