Forums at The Military Horse

Tony Barton

I would concur that it looks like British service, wearing a late or just post-Boer War field uniform , probably taken at home. He appears to be wearing the first khaki wool tunic which came in the last years of the Boer War, and the cord breeches and hussar boots also match ( though in the field an...

Tony Barton

That is exactly the film version which is such rubbish.

Tony Barton

The first thing to say about this painting is that despite its popularity , it's miles from what actually happened. The Greys ( brigaded with the Royal Dragoons and the Inniskillings , both of whom barely get a mention because of this bloody painting ) advanced across a road, though a hedge, and gap...

Tony Barton

Getting back to the cavalry pillbox, it was really just a smartened-up version of the softer and bigger forage cap of the Napoleonic Wars. The circular style seems to have originally come from Eastern Europe, and was sometimes termed a " Pokalem " by the French , and the first ones had a let-down fl...

Tony Barton

Nice picture.
Those are long boots. Badly redrawn from Newcastle's Art of Equitation, in slightly more up to date clothing for 1705.

Tony Barton

I think you are right. They were mostly religious extremists ( in modern terms at least ) who wanted to create a theocracy free from interference by state authority . As such they mostly came from the middle class , who had almost no hands-on experience of agriculture , and were thus pretty helpless...

Tony Barton

So palm down predates the rise of Prussian prestige in 1871....and all those dreadful pointy helmets . We Brits thoroughly confuse the issue : The Royal Navy salutes palm down , the Army palm forward. If you go back to 1815, they were still saluting with a couple of fingers, like the Boy Scouts. Qui...

Tony Barton

Because the saddles have felt numnahs attached underneath, which do the job.

Tony Barton

John , I think that mechanised troops would have been issued the normal rectangular pair of messtins carried by the whole army after the 1937 webbing was issued. They fitted into the webbing haversack, also rectangular. I think the circular tins went out at the same time as the horse, since there wa...

Tony Barton

Nice collection, I think they are in training camp rather than in France . One is marked with a photographer from Middlesborough , on the Tees about forty miles north of here !

Tony Barton

FtValleyPS , That's a single loop trumpet , approximating to the old 18th century and earlier types, or the modern State trumpets. It apparent from all these now intermingling threads that US usage is now to call a cavalry trumpet a Bugle , and for US infantry to use the same trumpet as well , but a...

Tony Barton

Some examples on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kutm606Dqb0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kutm606Dqb0

sound quality not so good in the second one.
Properly played , trumpets should take the paint off the wall.....

Tony Barton

The difference is one of length and bore , which gives a different tone and range when sounded. Valves are an addition used for orchestral instruments after about 1850, but are not relevant to the traditional trumpets and bugles. The trumpeter sounds the different notes by changing the tension of th...

Tony Barton

And, in the smoothbore Napoleonic Age, actually breaking Infantry in the first place. They could be devastating , particularly in rain, or when taking the Infantry by surprise, as at Albuera. Two battalions of a Brigade devastated , the third badly damaged , by Polish Lancers. See also Aliwal in the...

Tony Barton

From their shoulder titles,I would hazard a guess that they are probably 'A' Battery , The Honourable Artillery Company , the oldest unit in the British Army. In 1914 they were a Territorial Unit ( that's a volunteer, part-time unit for US friends ), and this looks like their training camp . Artille...

Tony Barton

I hope these might be useful. They are not very good, since they were taken through glass without a tripod with a pre-digital camera. http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/TonyBarton/more%20dollies/1805-saddle-three.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/TonyBarton/more%20dollies/1805-saddle-R-Ar...

Tony Barton

If I might comment , as an Englishman with an interest in historic food..... As far back as we have good information , the 17c, food in Britain was as rich and varied as any in Europe. But how well you ate depended on income. As with most things , it's all a matter of money and education.... Food fo...

Tony Barton

And here's one of the first of Cesar's saddles arrived at its destination. A Trumpeter of the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars , Palestine 1918. I've made all the 1/6th scale kit , but it's not all attached here for clarity :~ http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g53/TonyBarton/more%20dollies/Travelling-l...

Tony Barton

Back to the British boots :~ Prior to and during WW1 ,men were issued with two pairs of boots , supplied as fleshout brown leather , very greasy . One were generally kept for parade, and blackened and polished . The other were worn in the field, and kept brown and simply greased with " dubbin ". The...

Tony Barton

If I might chip in with some British observations on the subject : the reason that there were more than one size or type of instrument was largely musical. The longer the tube , the more notes can easily be sounded. If you look at the original 17c military trumpets , they were long (2 '6" in a singl...

Forums at The Military Horse

Search found 21 matches

Re: Help identifying uniform in old picture

Re: How were these guys actually equipped?

Re: How were these guys actually equipped?

Re: What's up with that cap. . . a thread dedicated to unusu

Re: The True and perfect seat 1705

Re: Off Topic. . . and grisly.

Re: U. S. Salute

Re: Postcards of the Royal Artillery

Re: British Cavalry mess tins.

Re: Postcards of the Royal Artillery

Re: Varieties of Bugles

Re: Trumpets vs Bugles

Re: Trumpets vs Bugles

Re: Civil War cavalry lance

Re: Training at Aldershot, 1914

Re: "1805" British light dragoon saddle.

Re: Off Topic: World War One Made British Eats Bad

Re: WW1 1902 British UP saddle miniature

Re: What color are those brown boots?

Re: Varieties of Bugles