"British West Indies Regiments" Topic
5 Posts
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| Smokey Roan | 13 May 2017 3:26 p.m. PST |
Can't recall seeing them in 15mm. They fought in a lot of battles, even in Africa and the Indian/Pacific Oceans. I assume they were Jamaicans, Dominicans, etc? Black, mixed, etc? They seemed to get a lot of bad assignments (were slaughtered at New Orleans) and were thrown in places deemed deadly to troops, disease wise (Gold Coast, por exampol) Dont seem like a happy lot. Were they mostly impressed? Tell me about West Indian Regiments. And what 15mm figs do you use for them? |
| Prince Alberts Revenge | 13 May 2017 3:51 p.m. PST |
The images I've seen of them, they are depicted as African heritage. As I recall, they suffered from disease during the New Orleans campaign, I believe because of the climate/weather. I believe Old Glory makes them in 28mm and Blue Moon makes them in 18mm. Not sure of true 15mm source. |
| Smokey Roan | 13 May 2017 4:06 p.m. PST |
Thanks. I think they also suffered at New Orleans because they were sent in with fascines to bridge the ditch, and their Colonel, Mullins I believe, was drunk. |
| Grelber | 13 May 2017 10:26 p.m. PST |
Smokey,
Patrick Leigh Fermor mentions them in his book on his travels in the Caribbean, The Traveler's Tree (1950).
"The musicians, I learnt, were the band of the Royal West Indian Regiment. Queen Victoria, in the middle of the last century, was consulted about a suitable uniform for this distant corps. She had just returned from a state visit to Paris, and after a few moments thought, she said: "You know, like those French ones with red hats and baggy trousers."
"Zouaves, ma'am?"
"Yes, yes, that's it." And Zouaves they have remained ever since"
Fermor's description of the uniform of the band members: "Their plum-coloured tarbooshes were bound, turban-wise, with thick cords of yellow and white. Waistcoats and Moroccan boleros of brilliant canary and scarlet were frogged and braided in elaborate Eastern designs, and, below striped sashes, blue trousers piped with yellow spread their oriental volume, while the calves of their legs and their ankles were covered with dazzling, white pipe-clayed spats."
He refers to them as "a group of Negroes attired as Janissaries and Bashi Bazouks and Grand Eunuchs." Grelber |
| Andoreth | 15 May 2017 9:21 a.m. PST |
"The Empty Sleeve" is a good history of the regiment. link |
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