"Militia and Volunteers 1792-1816." Topic

Well, here they are! I promised that I'd update the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteer units that I originally posted in the "Contemporary (1790-1820) British Army in Pictures" thread.

I have revised the layout and added one or two new pictures. there is also a new section on pictures of surviving colours of the period. These are but a few of what must have been many hundreds carried by the Militia, Volunteers, and Fencible units throughout Britain. The photos aren't brilliant but they are worth seeing.

Please refrain from posting until I have completed the picture postings…I will indicate when you may post with the word 'FIN'

FIN

That is truly amazing and a great labor of love! Thanks for posting!

Great!

Amazing collection – thank you for sharing

Malmesbury Troop!

I was in "Number 4 Platoon (Malmesbury), C Company (Chippenham), Wiltshire ACF"

I see that one set of clours came out small! So here it is again

amazing, thank you, write a book.

Wow, stupendous. Thank you so much. Some of these uniforms are ones of which I've only ever read descriptions.

Those two versions of the Warwickshire yeomanry cavalry officer look like one original was painted then a copy made later in a new uniform.

Do we know the level of proficiency in light infantry tactics by the militia and volunteer units styled 'light' or 'rifle'? Did any of them ever train at Shorncliffe, or did they all just read a book?

Very well done. Thanks for posting this material.

Really marvelous. Thank you.

All drills and rules/regulations that were laid down for the Regular Army were followed by the Militia and Volunteers. They were in the Shorncliffe manuals that were laid out by the likes of Moore, Rottenberg, Dundas, and Coot-Manningham. All had to first train as regular troops in the march and maneuver with further instruction given on light infantry maneuvers for flank companies and Light infantry regiments, (The Honourable Artillery Company had a Jaeger unit clothed very similar to the 95th rifles ) light company types were seen as to be able to be both skirmishers and act as another wing of Grenadiers when with the battalion.

The Militia Light Infantry were indeed trained under the same regulation manual as the regular Rifle corps with Schools at Shorncliffe which was set up in the mid-1790s and John Moor set up an Irish Militia School in 1798.

I do believe that Fencible and Volunteer light infantry, in general, were trained locally, not at Shorncliffe though (I'm not 100% about this) the officers and training staff may well have attended Shorncliffe for instruction. I'll have to do a bit of delving into my library about this aspect.

could be a good topic for Helion,
Portait of Peter Jones by Sir Henry Raeburn
Surrey Yeomanry Cavalry
link

according to an old Military Modelling of 1985
The Chart of 1806 shows 285 Yeomanry Cavalry corps, of which concerning the general aspect jackets and pantalons there were :

-124 with red jackets/dolman (108 with white, 9 blue, 3 buff, 2 light blue breeches, 2 all red) as the most common

-93 with blue jackets (61 with white, 17 all blue, 9 buff breeches) including 4 light blue with white breeches and 2 all light blue

-22 with green jackets for the less usual (12 with white breeches, 4 all green, 3 with buff, only one with blue breeches Dumfriesshire and only one with light blue breeches Kent Guides)

-46 not given remain unknown…

in 1812 there were 232 corps 19 207 effectives for an establishment of 24 013 men

Thanks for that picture. The Surrey Yeomanry are on my to-paint list and my sources say the uniform was light blue. Judging by that portrait, the light blue was decidedly a grey-blue which is good know.

I have that picture and more since I posted this thread.
There is also a group of four examples of the Surrey Yeomanry, above.

I have also added many more contemporary pictures to the regular Regiments. Perhaps I'll post a updated thread some day…