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Allies Paint me surprised by this Some Red Hot Gospel there! This great Nation & Its People

Gordon Sinclair – The Americans (A Canadian’s Opinion)

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Brits on horseback

United Kingdom
As a courtesy to British visitors, these pages are written in -tentative- English

British Hussars

It would naturally take some time for the “Hussar craze” to contaminate the United Kingdom after sweeping over the Continent. The dash of attire and behaviour displayed on the Napoleonic battlefields in the service of France certainly made the best impression, and in due time the British Army started changing her Light Dragoon Regiments into Hussars, in dress and in title.

A proud tradition was established, and British Hussars displayed their elegant uniforms both in Society and over the Battlefields of the world. Some dramatic events made the stuff of legend. The Crimean War was a milestone, for the undying glory of the Light Brigade or the subsequent drastic changes in uniform.

Queen Victoria’s Army counted up to 13 Hussar Regiments. I may say that they sported some of the most splendid uniforms of the time. The trademark of the Victorian British Army, Regimental particularities, makes it a pleasure scrutinizing those images of the past, on the lookout for the telltale sign that will eventually give out the sitter’s regiment. Army lists and medal Rolls are the necessary companions of the researcher.

A bit more disturbing is the abundance of territorial Hussars in the Yeomanry Cavalry regiments. Uniformology resources are scarce, but a little thoroughness makes up for that.

“Chase me Ladies, I’m in the Cavalry !”
Portrait of the Young Man as a Hussar
The Regiments
(click on the postcard icons to access the various Regiment pages)
3rd (King’s Own) Hussars 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars 7th (Queen’s Own) Hussars 8th (K.’s Royal Irish) Hussars
10th (P. of W.’s Own) Hussars 11th (P. Albert’s Own) Hussars 13th Hussars 14th (King’s) Hussars
15th (The King’s) Hussars 18th (Q. Mary’s Own) Hussars 19th (Q. Alex.’s Own) Hussars 20th Hussars
21st Hussars
The Cavalry Depôt
When a Regiment was sent to serve overseas, a Squadron would stay in England to do depôt service – training new recruits and horses, to be sent over as reinforcements when needed.
The Cavalry Depôt was reorganized in Canterbury in 1871, and would gather the depôt squadrons of all the Cavalry Regiments on foreign service.
The Cavalry Depôt also served as a Riding School, training the future Regimental Riding-Masters, thus ensuring a certain level of uniformity in the equestrian arts among the various Regiments.
Officers at Canterbury in 1878

Yeomanry Cavalry

Early Yeomanry (territorial volunteer cavalry) uniforms is not as well a covered field as the regular army – but the good news are that most uniforms are quite distinctive. Most Yeomanry uniforms display white / silver lace, as opposed to the yellow / gold of the regulars (though there were, of course, exceptions to a rule that could never be fully enforced).
When faced with a supected Yeoman, first thing is to localize the county where the photographer’s studio was located. That holds the key to most identifications.
The 1898 Army List lists 38 Yeomanry Regiments (not all Hussars, some styling and fitting themselves Lancers or Dragoons), plus two Irish Terrritorial Cavalry units and the London Mounted Brigade.
Here are a few of them, classified by the order of precedence authorised in 1884 by Queen Victoria (when appropriate) :

1. Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry 2. Warwickshire Yeomanry 3. Yorkshire Hussars 4. Sherwood Rangers 5. Staffordshire Yeomanry 8. Cheshire Yeomanry 9. Ayrshire Yeomanry
10. Leicestershire Yeomanry 11.North Somerset Yeomanry 14. Northumberland Hussars 15. South Notts Hussars 16. Denbighshire Hussars
17. Westmorland & Cumberland 18. Pembroke Yeomanry Cavalry
19.Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles 20. Hampshire Carabiniers 21. Royal Bucks Hussars 23. Dorset Yeomanry 24. Royal Gloucestershire Hrs 28. Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry 29. Loyal Suffolk Hussars 30. Royal North Devon Yeomanry
31. Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars 32. West Kent Yeomanry 33. West Somerset Yeomanry 36. 2nd West York Yeomanry Cavalry 39. Lancashire Hussars 3rd County of London (Sharpshooters)
The Lost Hussars
It is not always within my capacity to formally ascertain which regiment a subject belongs to ; your help is more than welcome, if you have any clue thanks for contacting me at djedj@hotmail.com
Sergeant in Hull North Somerset Yeomanry ? Cornet  Staff Sergeant Drill Instructor
 
This is knot a Hussar
Ceci n’est pas un Hussard

Many British units sported uniforms that incorporated  traditional elements of the Hussars’ outfit : Hungarian knots, fur busbies, braided jackets…
It is therefore quite natural to mistake them for Hussars.

Some of them are devoted pages on their own right :
– the Royal Horse Artillery
(click on the image to the left)
-the Indian Army
(click on the image to the right).

A few other ones are presented hereunder.

Royal Horse Artillery The Indian Army
Royal Artillery Royal Engineers Rifle Volunteers Lancers Staff Officer
Recommended Readings
British Hussar Regiments 1805-1914
(Almark)
by AH Bowling
The Mess Dress of the Yeomanry Cavalry 1880-1914
by David J. Knight and Robert J. Smith
The Uniforms of the Imperial Yeomanry, 1901-1908
(the Military Historical Society, 2009)
by David J. Knight and Robert J. Smith
Evolution of the uniform patterns ; this deceiptively small book is packed with information and illustrations ; excellent value. Packed with information and illustrations : photos, drawings and colour plates, including some  reference work on lace and braid patterns ; superb work ! To know how the uniforms of the Yeomanry evolved, between proud traditions and the modernity brought up by the Boer War. Another excellent read on a fast moving era.
Recommended Browsings
Soldiers of the Queen The British Empire
A Beautiful Collection of Period Photographs from “Soldiers of the Queen”.
A very inspirational website – the design of mine owes MUCH to SotQ. Great stuff !
Military history and uniformology ; great reference with lots of scholarly commented pictures. I bookmarked the “Armed Forces” pages but there’s more to the website.
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All About Guns Allies

A Manor & Co 10-bore side-by-side by Michael Yardley

This month’s test gun is splendidly different – a Manor & Co 10-bore side-by- side weighing in at 9½lb even with its relatively short 26in barrels. I’ve used the word ‘beast’ to apply to some 12-bores in the past, and it certainly applies here.

When you bring the relatively compact, 31/2in-chambered and steel shot- proofed gun up to the shoulder, it requires surprising effort – more than its actual weight (no greater than some 32in 12-bore competition guns) might suggest. The shapes are excellent, though. The large Holland & Holland-style diamond grip is especially good. The balance is on the hinge pin, although this gun might well benefit from longer barrels with a more forward balance.

MANOR & CO 10-BORE SIDE-BY-SIDE

10-bore side-by-side

The Manor 10 has been built in Spain within the AyA factory to the specification of Gerald Coulter, the founder of Manor & Co, and using parts supplied by him from another now defunct Eibar maker. We have looked at other guns of his in these pages. Coulter, an aviation engineer by trade, has a passion for the eccentric. As well as this project, and another to manufacture ammunition for it (now difficult to obtain in Britain even in conventional lead loads), he is determined to repopularise the 16-bore and make improved steel loads available for that and smaller bores (which, save for the 20-bore, are poorly served at the moment).

You have to admire his pluck. I should also declare that I have recently accepted a commission from him to help with the load development. It’s good to see our trade still experimenting and taking risks. No one with too much of an eye to the bottom line would take this on; it is more for passion than profit in the current climate.

First impressions of the Manor & Co 10-bore side-by-side are positive. It appears to be finished to a high standard and is based on a large Anson & Deeley action. It is well scaled, so you would be hard-pressed to tell the bore of the gun from the photographs presented here. The fixed-choke barrels (1/4 and 1/2) are topped with a cross-hatched and tapered (11mm to 8mm) rib that is exceptionally well done. The action body, fore-end iron, top-lever and trigger-guard are hand engraved with Purdey-style rose and scroll. The action is traditionally bonemeal colour hardened. All good.

The gun is well stocked in a decent piece of Turkish walnut, with straight grain going through the large but elegant grip and a pleasantly figured butt. The dimensions of this demonstrator were 1½in and 2in for drop and 151/4in for length, including a short black ‘rubber’ pad. There was an extra ¼in at heel and ⅜in at toe – all very sensible. The classical stock shapes were excellent. The grip was particularly good for a large straighthand design (semi and full patterns are options), but it would have been hard to improve on the comb shapes too.

Coulter told me: “The gun is entirely bespoke – you can have whatever stock type and grip, barrel length and ribbing you want within reason. All the guns are future-proofed for steel. The 10- and 16-bores that I am having built at the moment – the latter as sidelock ejectors – will represent the end of an era. We are building a new 10 at the moment with ‘demasiado’ gold-inlay work on a black action. We had to bring a man out of retirement to do this.”

What of the 10-bore cartridge? It was once almost as popular as the 12-bore in the USA and had a strong following among wildfowlers here. The 10-bore side-by-side has been made with 25/8in, 2¾in, 27/8in, 3in, 3¼in and 3½in chambers. The 27/8in cartridges were the standard until 3½in (86mm and 89mm) became predominant (John Olin of Winchester was the father of the 3½in load, which dates, surprisingly, to 1932). The 31/2in lead loads may go up to 21/2oz.

10-bore side-by-side

TECHNICAL

The Anson & Deeley (A&D) was the first commercially successful hammerless design. It was called a boxlock because the hammers and mainsprings were contained within the action body (distinguishing it from sidelock and trigger-plate guns – the former carrying hammers and springs on its side-mounted locks, the latter on a plate screwed to the action).

Initially, the A&D boxlock was made with a single barrel lump, but this was soon changed to the now ubiquitous Purdey double lumps. The A&D design made the hammergun obsolete. It was patented by two Westley Richards employees in 1875 (five years before the equally famous sidelock designed by Frederick Beesley and licensed to his sometime employer James Purdey). Choke would be popularised in the same era, with ejectors perfected in the 1880s and 1890s as well. The modern shotgun was complete in concept.

SHOOTING IMPRESSIONS

Olly Searl had kindly offered the use of his excellent shooting ground at Fyfield, but the test was hindered by the fact that only 2oz payload cartridges could be sourced. Two targets were used: a going-away bird and a crosser. I missed the first but barely noticed because I found myself pushed almost out of the ‘cage’ on firing. This was a thumper – recoil is considerable.

I got the measure of it, leaned in and targets evaporated. It was an experience to remember. The gun has a quality feel, the shapes are excellent. It could be very different with better-tailored loads. As it is, you might put iron sights on the rib and use it with rifled slugs for boar or big game at close range. It wouldn’t be first choice for geese, but it’s still a wonderful project, and I take my hat off to Coulter for commissioning something so marvellously different.

 

MANOR & CO 10-BORE SIDE-BY-SIDE INFORMATION

♦ RRP: from £16,000

♦ Manor & Co, London

♦ 020 7993 2222

♦ manor.london

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https://youtu.be/ROxOFhqBGjo

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