"Drummers " Topic

I am assembling Perry and Victrix plastics and my only real complaint is that the drummers for both companies are not kids. From my understanding, most of the drummers were youngsters. Does anyone make figures of adolescent drummers that would closely match the Perry & Victrix lines?

We made our Drummer body smaller than all the other bodies and of a slighter frame, also if you look on the head sprues you will notice there is a younger face amongst them that is to be used for the Drummer.

Steve (Victrix limited)

We've had a discussion about this before (I've searched for a link but can't find it, sorry).

It's a myth that drummers were boys. In the previous discussion I posted a mass of data to back this up. Yes, they were sometimes young men (aged 17 or 18) but
a) that wouldn't necessarily make them shorter
b) there are just as many examples of the OLDER men of the company being given that drum to lug about

and, as Steve has written, the Victrix drummer is noticeably smaller (I like converting them into normal line figures and sticking them in the back row for some nice height variety)

It makes sense that they weren't children, given the quality of many school orchestras (is it even possible to make a recorder sound pretty?). I assume it would take a fair amount of skill and practice to learn the various beats required, and given their importance you'd want someone competent.

is it even possible to make a recorder sound pretty?

Yes.
link

"even possible to make a recorder sound pretty?)"

link

<<From my understanding, most of the drummers were youngsters.>>

Victorian myth, I'm afraid, as Lord Hill has pointed out.

Classic example – Lady Butler's painting of the 57th Foot at Albuhera shows a group of boy drummers/fifers at one end of the line; research by the National Army Museum in London found that the average age of the drummers was 26!

As regards their importance, I can't speak for European forces, but I'm fairly sure the British line infantry had stopped using drums to give orders in battle and relied solely on word-of-mouth to pass instructions by this time (it was certainly what was done in the field in the F&I War and ended officially in 1778 by order of C-in-C Amherst).

A bit later but the wonderful English writer, Rudyard Kipling, in 'The Drums of the Fore and Aft' makes it clear young drummerboys were not taken into battle as a rule.
I daresay that British depot battalions during the Napoleonic Wars may well have had child drummers but unlikely to be serving with the overseas battalions.

drummers were paid usually better than grenadiers, why give the money to a youngster?

Young drummers did exsit, like enfants de troupe but the majority would have been grown ups

raducci

Good point. During previous conflicts, when most regiments had only one battalion, the younger drummers were sent home with the recruiting parties (and in North America the older drummers were given muskets and made to stand in the ranks).

You'll need to be a man to:

1) Wear the drum for long hours
2) Learn and beat the drum correctly for the different commands
3) Remain calm under fire

Would you trust a child to do any of that?

I certainly wouldn't trust myself to do any of it.

I am not denying the improbability of boy-drummers but I would ask readers to remember that the beginning of adulthood started much earlier then than now and there was no concept of teenagers.
So a "man" at 14-15 is a plausible concept for the C18th.