Old Soldiers 1903

These long-serving men of the Yorkshire regiment are in walking out order; the dress tunic and trousers with the undress Brodrick cap. This peakless cap was blue with a small semi-circular piece of green cloth behind the badge, and lasted from 1902 to 1905. Although they have a fine array of stripes on their sleeve, they are ranked low in the regiment. The standing man is a lance-corporal with a white worsted stripe on his right arm. The seated man may be a private as we cannot see his right sleeve. The inverted white stripes on the left forearm are for long service and good conduct. There are nine stripes on the seated figure but it is not easy to find out how much service this represents. In his book A Dictionary of Military Uniform, Bill Carman says, ‘In 1881 the chevrons were moved to the left forearm with the points upwards, one for two years, two for six years and so on.’
The original caption to this photo in Regiment magazine tells us that they are wearing different dress tunics. The seated man has the pre-1902 tunic with jam-pot cuffs and the standing NCO has the new tunic with pointed cuffs. The quality of the reproduction makes this difficult to see but the newer tunic has white piping around the shoulder straps while the older tunic does not. In both cases these straps are in the same colour as the scarlet tunic, it was not until 1913 that they were changed to green. The white leather belts can be seen clearly, with their brass interlocking clasps. The seated man has a medal for service in India, with a crimson and green striped ribbon, so is probably from the second Battalion. The other man has a medal that is difficult to identify but it seems odd that he has has no medals for either India or South Africa.

Regimental Details | Uniforms