The adoption of a light infantry company for each regiment of Foot was announced by the Adjutant-General, Major-General Edward Harvey, in a letter dated 29 Nov 1770. There were a couple of false starts to the project, but by 21 Feb 1771 there was a decision on the size of each company; two lieutenants, one sergeant, three corporals and 34 privates. There was talk of a drummer but that was dropped.
The illustration is unsigned, but probably painted by Percy Sumner who wrote two articles about the five water-coloured drawings of the 25th Foot in the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, no.61 (1937) and no.71 (1939). This one was illustrated along with light company men of two other regiments, the 11th and 13th Foot. Sumner had made copies from the originals in the Royal Library at Windsor.
The painting of this light company private of the 25th Regiment is helpful as far as the cap is concerned, but not so helpful with the rest of the uniform. The uniform of light companies was authorised to have a short coat, red waistcoat, tan leather belts and short black gaiters. The equipment was to comprise a small cartouche-box, a powder horn, a bag for the ball ammunition, a short musket and a hatchet. The waist-belt was to have two frogs, for the bayonet and the hatchet. Officers and sergeants were to carry fusils and wear pouches.
The headdress of light company troops varied from one regiment to another, and this is evident from the three paintings at Windsor, so the small skull cap of the 25th appears to be red, and had black fur, at least on the front, and a turned-up part on the front with red embroidered cloth, showing a thistle and the Scottish motto NEMO ME IMPUNE LACCESIT.
The coat is certainly cut short, having no tails and turn-backs, but it should be even shorter. There are no wings on the shoulders, the waistcoat is white instead of red, and the black gaiters are long. He does have a waist-belt but there is no sign of the frogs for the bayonet or hatchet.
All five of the paintings are captioned by the Italian artist. This one, according to Sumner, has: ‘Private Man of the Highland Compy. of H.M. XXV Regt.’ The background shows a cliff, part of the walls of Fort St Philip and the sea near the port of Mahon, Minorca. The title 'Highland Company' was probably the idea of Lord Goerge Lennox, the Colonel, who was keen to maintain the Scottish connection. There is no indication that this is a man from the Light Company, apart from the cap that he wears, and the shorter coat. Another copy of the painting (I have not seen the original) is shown below. It was made by Cecil Lawson who also carried out research and made copies of these, and the panoramic paintings of the troops on Minorca in the 1770s. Lawson’s copies are not very good but they are mostly to be found in the Brown University Digital Repository.
