Cannons at a Rapid Gait
British Royal Horse Artillery
1793-1815

Uniform Plates of the
British Royal Horse Artillery
1793 and 1815

By Arnold Blumberg

Details as to dress are not always easy to obtain, particularly during the 23-year period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars when numerous changes were made. In addition, while the regulations might require a specific appearance as shown in the uniform plates on this page, as A. C. Mercer of Waterloo fame noted in a Victorian era study on the Royal Artillery:

"...regulations in those days were little adhered to away from headquarters [by officers], every one put on as much more lace as his fancy dictated or his purse permitted. For my part, my first jacket resembled a furze-bush in full blossom, for it was one mass of gold from the collar to the sash. No great space, after all, for the waists were then worn so exceedingly short that my sash was nearly under my arms; and other jackets which I had afterwards, of more modest description, had only six loops of lace on the breast.

"...As all fashions are very variable, so was this of short waists, as I experienced to my cost; for when, in 1807, we went out to Buenos Ayres [the aborted expedition to South America under General John Whitelock], supposing our absence from home would be a long one, I took a complete and full outfit of everything, and among the rest three new jackets. These the nature of our service scarcely allowed me to wear half a dozen times, so that they were quite fresh when we returned to Woolwich, and to my horror, useless -- the mode being so completely changed that the jacket reached below the hips, and was made with something like the old-fashioned skirt."

Mercer's notes and the period uniform plates by R. J. Macdonald were directed to us courtesy of the Royal Armouries, Fort Nelson, and the color reproductions were provided by Uniformology, Inc.

RHA: 1793

RHA: 1815

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