"British Army Cuff Colors ???" Topic

Can someone kindly point me in the direction of a website that lists the cuff colors of British regiments during the late 1870s/early 1880s?

My thanks in advance.

-- Jeff

Pretty sure they were the same as Napoleonic until 1881 when they became blue for Royals, white for English & Welsh, green for Irish, and yellow for Scottish.

Does this help?

link

In 1881 an attempt was made as an economy measure to standardise facing colours for British infantry regiments (other than the 4 rifle regiments who wore dark green uniforms) according to the following system:

Guards and "Royal" Regiments (i.e. those with "Royal", "King's", "Queen's" or Prince Albert's name in the title) – Dark Blue.

English & Welsh Regiments – White.

Scots Regiments – Yellow.

Irish Regiments – Green (In fact this meant only the Connaught Rangers. All other Irish Regiments were "Royal" and so had dark blue facings).

While this standardisation made the manufacturing and replacement of uniforms simpler, it proved unpopular amongst the army at large. Some regiments (e.g. The Buffs and Green Howards) derived their names or nicknames from the colour of their facings and the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (who had red facings) lost their claim to be the only truly red coated regiment in the British Army.

So widespread was opposition to the order, and so frequent the requests for special exceptions to be made, that the scheme in its original form was finally dropped and the historic colours were re-instated in a number of regiments, until full dress for the Army as a whole finally vanished with the coming of war in 1914. While many regiments did continue with their new 1881 facings, instances where reversion to traditional colours was approved included the Northumberland Fusiliers (white to Gosling green), the Manchester Regiment (white to Lincoln green), the Norfolk Regiment (white to yellow), the Essex Regiment (white to 'Pompadour Purple'), the Devonshire Regiment (white to Lincoln green), the Highland Light Infantry (yellow to buff), the Seaforth Highlanders (yellow to buff), the Prince of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment (white to grass green), the Duke of Wellington's Regiment (white to scarlet), the Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment (white to buff), the Suffolk Regiment (white to yellow), the Durham Light Infantry (white to dark green) and the Buffs (white to buff)[6]. Even after World War I this tendency to revert to historic facings continued, although by that time the scarlet uniforms were normally worn only by regimental bands and by officers in mess and levee dress. As examples the Norfolk Regiment regained its former yellow facings in 1925 and the North Staffordshire Regiment its pre-1881 black facings in 1937[7].

Listen to da Moose. He has the right of it.

I guess what I'm really looking for are the pre-1881 facing colors of the 1870s "numbered" regiments.

Can anyone direct me to an online list of those?

-- Jeff

Jeff,
I can't find a site for facing colours for the period you are looking for.This list is courtesy of Osprey's 'The British Army on Campaign (3):1856-1881'.
Vaughan is partly right – not many British regiments changed their facings after the Napoleonic Wars, but a few did.

Regimental Facing Colours up to 1881:
Blue: 1 LG, 2 LG, KDG, 4 DG, 1 RD, 2 D, 16 L, RE, Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots Gds, 1st, 2nd, 4th,6th, 7th, 8th,21st, 23rd, 25th, 35th, 42nd, 50th, 51st, 79th(from 1873), 85th, 87th, 100th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 104th.

Buff: 2 DG(cream), 3rd, 14th, 22nd, 27th, 31st, 40th, 48th, 52nd, 61st, 62nd, 71st, 78th, 81st, 90th, 105th.

Green: (Dark)5 DG, 68th, 73rd, 79th(until 1873).(Gosling)5th. (Lincoln) 11th, 45th, 49th, 55th, 63rd, 69th, 94th. (Grass)19th, 24th, 36th, 39th, 54th, 66th.

Yellow: 3 DG, 6 D, 9th, 10th, 12th, 15th, 16th, 20th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 34th, 37th, 38th, 44th, 46th, 57th, 67th, 72nd, 75th, 77th, 80th, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 88th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 95th, 96th, 99th, 108th.

White: 17th, 32nd, 41st, 43rd, 47th, 59th, 65th, 74th, 98th, 106th, 107th, 109th.

Red: 33rd, 53rd, 76th.

Black: 7 DG, 58th, 64th, 70th, 89th.

Purple: 56th.

Sky-blue: 97th.

The following had Blue tunics:
Faced Red: RHG, 3 LD(converted to Hussars 1861), 4 LD, 5 L, 9 L, 12 L, 14 LD, RHA, RA, Ordance.

Faced Buff: 13 LD.

Faced White: 6 DG, 17 L, Militart Train.

Faced Blue: 4 H (from 1861), 7 H, 8 H, 10 H, 11 H, 14 H( from 1861), 15 H, 18 H, 19 H, 20 H, 21 H.

The following had Green tunics:
Faced Scarlet: 60th
Faced Black: Rifle Brigade.

carbine1959,

Thank you, sir. That is what I wanted . . . and since I am one of those few wargamers that has never been at all interested in the Napoleonic era, I had no idea what the British colors were back then . . . so this is a great help indeed.

My thanks also to Sterling Moose for his fine answer (my fault was in not properly asking the question I wanted answered. And I thank the others who posted too.

-- Jeff