Unidentified Yeomanry and volunteers buttons

[Martyn123]

Good afternoon

Three volunteer, Yeomanry buttons that are in excavated condition. Can anyone positively identify them please. I am not selling these I just want to find out about them. I think that one may be Leicester Yeomanry, one is a Yeomanry Cavalry and the other I would think is a volunteer. Is it Argyll volunteers?

Many thanks

Martyn

[Cribyn]

Hello Martyn

Your first button has the initials 'CYC' and was originally used by the Castlemartin Yeomanry Cavalry but the same design was used by the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry right up to 1905. I think your example is the later type. I can't read the backmark to offer any confirmation of this though.

Second button, 'AV', is an early volunteer button, the 'A' could be for almost any region/district/town in the UK. These early buttons can be very difficult to identify with any certainty.

Third button 'LY' could be an early open-backed button but it looks to me as if it is just the dome with the entire rear element missing. If early then it could be any district/town with an 'L' that had a Yeomanry unit; if a later button then an 'L' county, Leicestershire being most likely. Howard Ripley's book on Yeomanry Buttons mentions, but does not illustrate, a button with block 'LY' below a crown being worn well into the 1830s.

Roger

PS This site - http://asahelena.wixsite.com/militar...ia-buttons-a-b - does have your 'AV' button as Argyllshire Volunteers, so you were right!

[Martyn123]

Many thanks Roger.

The L . Y does look as though it has lost the centre. I can't see any shank remnant inside so, as you say, is probably Leicester Yeomanry. So this would date up to the late 1830s probably?

What date would you put on the AV button?

Many thanks for your time. I'm going to research the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry now.

Thanks

Martyn

[Cribyn]

Hello Martyn

The 'LY' button I would say is late 1830s if it is Leicestershire yeomanry.

If you click on the link you will find quite a bit of useful information about the 'AV' button and possibly the 'CYC' one as well. All in all it is a very useful site and well worth a look at.

Roger

[Martyn123]

Many thanks Roger that's brilliant I will have a look at that now.

Best wishes

Martyn

[Martyn123]

I've found a similar button here for the Leicester Yeomanry. It's probably earlier than mine.

http://www.paoyeomanry.co.uk/ButtonsLYLDY.htm

Mine looks like a brass or bronze. It may have had a shank in the middle as I can see a possible trace of where it was attached. It's a shallow dish shape so may have not had a back. There is a similar AV (early 19th century) on that site you told me about (which I will use from now on). The Castlemartin looks like it might date to 1855 - 1901 with the Victorian crown I think.

Many thanks for your help

Martyn