"British 7th Hussars Pelisse fur at Waterloo" Topic

Does anyone know what colour it was? There is good pictorial evidence that it was white in 1812 but it seems to be less clear for 1815 after they returned from the Peninsula and changed to yellow lace.

I have looked at Mollo and Barthorp and they say white for troopers with brown for officers. Black fur was adopted in 1820.

Centjour, Fosten, Franklin and Perry show black with possibly brown for officers.

I've had a look at Dibble's magnificent collection but only officers and pre Waterloo.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mont St Jean site show them with black/dark brown

Do ‘em brown and if anyone queries it say they're muddy…

If in doubt choose the one you like the best and then quote the author as the best of all sources.

Andyuk,

Thanks for replying. I had a look earlier but called it Centjours. I'm not sure if he hasn't just copied Fosten.

Cerdric,

Probably quite accurate after Quatre Bras but I'm looking for something more aesthetically pleasing.

I'd go with Mollo and Barthorp, but largely for aesthetic reasons. These ARE the Lillywhite Seventh, after all!

Also there's an 1817 watercolor showing an officer in brown fur, and I can't see black fur for enlisted and brown for officers: it's just not enough of a distinction.

Why not directly ask the regiment itself at queensroyalhussars.org?

Yes BillyNM. I wrote to both National Army Museum and Winchester Barracks (at the time the Home Hq) of the 10th Hussars many years ago when I had questions about that regiment and they were both very helpful. If you are in UK a visit to the NAM is a very way to spend a day.

The regimental association at queensroyalhussars.org has a broad remit. When the new QRH museum in Warwick opens it should offer a more productive line of enquiry.
link

The present regiment is the repository of the history and traditions of four historic regiments: 3rd The King's Own Hussars, The 4th Queen's Own Hussars, 7th Queen's Own Hussars and The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars.

In the course of serial amalgamations, niche details such as that referred to in the OP question can fall out of view or be misunderstood.

Regimental museums tend to focus on preservation of artefacts and perpetuation of traditions in order to provide "easily digestible narratives," It is less common to find them creating focus for a more pro-active, systematic refinement or extension of knowledge.

So, good luck!

Black for the Offices and black for the O.Rs.

Trockledockle

I've had a look at Dibble's magnificent collection but only officers and pre Waterloo.

Post 1812 changed to blue facings and the braid to gold/yellow. There are one or two officers in the new uniform in the link you have posted.

Though the depiction is post-Waterloo, it is nevertheless the '1813' pattern

Oh! The Hussey Vivian miniature is captioned wrong. It is not depicting him in C.1807 But again, in the '1813' rig.

Here it is amended

C.Marcuard's post-Waterloo, Horse Guards, Commissioned Schematic:

Thanks very much to everyone for their posts. A few thoughts:

1: I had looked at the regiment's website but had gained the impression that the new museum had stalled. Good to see that it is back on the road. I suspect that they will be too busy with startup problems in the next couple of months but I may go back to them in the future.

2: I painted two figures- one with black fur and one with white. I think that the white does look better.

3: I did a bit more research on portraits of Lord Uxbridge (he was very keen of paintings of himself!). He was the colonel of the 7th and wore the regiment's uniform while he was a general. The Pieneman painting of the Battle of Waterloo has him in a pelisse with black fur (with a moustache and a brown fur hat). In the background , there is a portrait of his ADC Major Thornhill from the 7th -also with black fur. I understand that Pieneman travelled to London to do portraits of the main personalities. There is also a Pieneman portrait but I'd guess that is a bit later as he is wearing a shako (see discussion on this site).

link

There is also the Lawrence portrait from 1817 with black fur.

link

The Dighton painting also seems to show black but I'm not sure if he is wearing a pelisse. He is wearing a shako.

link

This all supports Dibble's view but there is one slight fly in the ointment. The uniform he wore at Waterloo is preserved at Plas Newydd (with the bloodstained trousers) has brown fur. Would fur fade or was it repaired?

link

Overall, I think that the balance of evidence favours black.

A bit more research favouring black fur.

Mollo has some black and white photographs of sketches done in 1815 by Jean-Baptiste Rubens of an officer and private of the 7th Hussars. I've managed to find scans of the original colour illustrations on the Belgica website and the private has black fur. The officer seems to have grey but these sketches are not always complete so they may not have been coloured in. Copies were made of these by Aerts in the late nineteenth century and are available on the Gallica website. In those the officer's fur is black. Here are the links.

Rubens

uurl.kbr.be/1913436

Aerts

link

Interestingly, both have light coloured overalls not dark blue.

Richard A – I do live in the UK and visited the NAM several times but my last vist after it was 're-modleled' has IMO completely spoilt it as a museum. It's more like a play-group with some artefacts knocking about. When I left I heard some foreign visitors who were also leaving expressing their disappointment at how underwhelming it was for a NATIONAL Army Museum. Compared to Vienna's Heeresgeschichtliches Museum it's pathetic.