Who, What, Where, When? #2

[leigh kitchen]

The pair on the sergeant? I wondered but couldn't quite match them up as QSA, KSA.

[Hoot]

They could also be the IGSM(1854) and the CAM.

[grumpy]

I am a bit surprised by the lack of interest in the frocks/tunics.

Setting aside the officers, we have at least three types of garment, suggesting that the grouping is no more than demi-formal [a formal group would perhaps be summoned by an order specifying order of dress, medals to be worn etc.]

I am not an artillery expert but see nothing to disagree with that opinion.

Judging by the scattering of ranks we may be looking at a sub-unit of a battery.

The three garments in question are:

1. the seven button India Pattern unlined frock: no breast pockets, piped/braided collar and cuffs
2. An extraordinary nine button version of the frock on what I take to be a front row senior NCO or perhaps WO [no ranking visible]
3. The informal, walking-out "blue patrols" with breast pockets ........ these do not appear in regulations but were very common in India and in barrack-wear at Home around the turn of the century. These may be private purchase, or unit-funded purchase. I think it fair to say that nobody knows how these were provided or paid for.

[Toby Purcell]

The 9-button upper garment worn by a Senior NCO is in fact a tunic, as marked out by the thick braid of the cuff decoration and collar trim. It might have been an unlined, 'second tunic', but tunic it is. The front edge piping is scarlet and not showing on the image.

[grumpy]

Toby, thank you, as I believe tunics per se were not an India issue, one supposes that this one [and at least one other] were brought under the existing regulations from Home.

We now have this further "non-uniform" item of dress in a semi-formal grouping.

As ever, I would love to know [and never will] what occasion brought these soldiers together for the elephant shot.

[Toby Purcell]

Originally Posted by grumpy

Toby, thank you, as I believe tunics per se were not an India issue, one supposes that this one [and at least one other] were brought under the existing regulations from Home.

We now have this further "non-uniform" item of dress in a semi-formal grouping.

As ever, I would love to know [and never will] what occasion brought these soldiers together for the elephant shot.

It does seem unusual, although I have occasionally seen other photos of full-dress tunics being worn in India. The officer in the photo is also wearing a tunic rather than the India pattern frock we would expect (more lightly constructed 'second tunics' were laid down as 'optional' in DRs). The SNCO's tunic might well be a personal purchase, as tailoring was so very cheap in India. There were three government factories, and every regimental bazaar also had its own community of 'durzis'.