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| Officer, 24th Foot 1755 by P H Smitherman
This image shows a mounted officer of the regiment, perhaps the commanding officer or the adjutant, on duty, wearing his crimson sash. The cut of the coat is similar to the others we have seen, but the cuffs in this case are slashed. The slash, the ornamental panel on the cuff, was originally an opening, similar to that on the cuffs of mens coats today, with two or three buttons which could be undone to allow the cuff to be turned back. Cuffs then became larger, and could be turned back without unbuttoning, but often needed some device to hold them up. Often button became part of an elaborate panel, as here. This sort of panel, once worn almost universally, survives today in the full dress tunic of the Foot Guards and could be seen, up to 1939, in the tunic of the Royal Marines. The border here is double, the laced panel with the buttons fitting on to a similar panel on the sleeve. The turned-back cuff of the facing colour is in fact stitched down. This arrangement of two fitting panels appeared in various orders of dress in the Royal Navy about 1770 until 1827, but was not usual in the army. It will be seen that the pockets of the coat have a similar arrangement. The V-shaped cut in the middle of the slash was normally straight at this time, or cut to a point in the middle as are those on the cuffs of the Foot Guards today. The 24th Foot, better known subsequently as the South Wales Borderers, were raised in 1689, and still wear the grass green facings shown here. |