5 Dragoon Guards Tunic
 

Posting a photo of another one of my tunics. Would appreciate dating info.

Circa 1914 or a few years prior. Many such tunics for both cavalry and infantry survive in unissued condition such as this one. When issued, it would of course have collar badges and shoulder titles added. Manufacture essentially ceased after this, but regiments still had these full dress uniforms in store which were worn between the wars by bands or for special occasions such as Tatoos etc.

CB

Thanks for the information. It is in very good condition. One button missing from the Left shoulder

It’s of the pattern first introduced in 1881, but described in the regulations of 1883, two years after the Cardwell/Childers Reforms had concluded, and in essence putting into effect the changes agreed. The most significant changes for the Dragoons type tunic was the chevron cuff decoration replaced by an Austrian knot and officers rank moved from the collar to plaited shoulder cords. The description for other ranks was as follows:

Tunic (except for the 6th Dragoon Guards)— Scarlet cloth ; with collar and cuffs of the colour of the regimental facings, in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 7th Dragoon Guards, of velvet ; in the 2nd Dragoon Guards and the 1st, 2nd, and 6th Dragoons, of cloth.

The collar ornamented with golden yellow piping all round. The cuffs pointed, and edged with round-back golden yellow cord,forming a single Austrian knot, 7 inches deep, with 9 buttons in front, and 2 at the waist behind ; a scarlet flap on each skirt behind, with 3 buttons, and edged with round-back golden yellow cord. The front edged with the same material and colour as the facings, and the skirts lined with white. shoulder straps of facing colour piped as per the cuffs, a small button at the top.

This tunic remained in use until the outset of WW1 and thus was the last full dress uniform issued to all Dragoon Guards and Dragoons. It is still seen on bandsmen of the heavy cavalry today.

NB. Collar badges were not worn by Dragoons until after the 2nd Anglo/Boer War 1899-1902 (see enclosed B&W photos taken after introduction). If the buttons on your tunic have Tudor (aka King’s crowns), and there are no holes in your tunic’s collar for collar badges, then you can date your garment to sometime between approximately 1903 and 1914.

Afternote: The 5th Dragoon Guards was the regiment of Lord Baden Powell, who as well as founding the Boy Scout Movement, established for the first time two British cavalry schools, one at home in Britain and one in India, as well as introducing proper training in the conduct of reconnaissance that taught both cavalry and infantry soldiers to make the best use of terrain in order to see without being seen. These initiatives were all as a result of perceived inefficiencies following the Boer war, and to inculcate pride in their achievement as trained scouts** he also introduced a qualification arm badge for them to wear.

**a term borrowed from the American Frontier and brought to British public consciousness by Buffalo Bill Cody’s travelling Western show.

Seoirse,

Further to my last post, I omitted to mention that woven titles were worn in one of two colours (yellow or red) on the full dress dragoon tunics from the outset of the design with Austrian cuff knots, in 1881, until the woven titles were replaced by gilding metal types in 1907.

Alongside Bruce I collaborated with an illustrative series on these titles (following an infantry one) in his uniformology website here: http://www.uniformology.com/S-TITLES-08.html

This means that your 5th Dragoons tunic can be narrowed down further, date wise, to between 1907 and 1914, and I ask you if there are holes pierced for the missing titles fixing loops? If not then it seems that the tunic was an late example possibly never issued.