Posts Tagged ‘1st Regiment of Foot’

Officer's Albert Shako 1844 - 55, Grenadier Company, 1st Battalion, 1st (The Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot

The 1^st Regiment of Foot, commonly known as The Royal Regiment or The Royal Scots, landed at Kalamita Bay in the Crimea in September 1854, as part of the 3^rd Division, English Army of the East.  Their battle honours include Alma, Inkerman, and the Siege of Sevastopol.

This photograph shows an excellent example of the officer’s Albert Shako, which was authorized in December 1843, and began appearing in the ranks in 1844.  It became regulation headgear with the publishing of the 1846 Uniform Regulations, and was replaced by a more stylish, sloping-forward shako in 1855.

The gilt chain chinstrap and shako badge denote an officer’s cap, while the white ball tuft and grenade within the shako badge indicate the Grenadier Company, on the right flank of the regiment.  The Grenadier Company led the way in an attack, and often functioned as skirmishers for the regiment, operating with the Light Company (A hunting horn in the badge and a green ball tuft) on the left flank.

The shako badge is a gilt eight-pointed star with battle honours on the star’s rays.  In the center of the badge is a laurel wreath surmounted by a crown.  Below the wreath is a scroll with the word “Peninsula,” and below that a Sphinx over the word “Egypt.”  Within the wreath is a grenade with “1” on the ball, circled with the words “Royal Regiment.”

The shako is black beaver.  Regulations specify it will be six and three quarters inches high.  The actual height measurement of this shako is six and seven eighths inches.  Perhaps it stretched a bit over the years or it was merely made that way for the officer, who would have contracted for its manufacture and paid from his own pocket.  It is correctly a quarter inch less in diameter at the top than at the bottom.  There is a two and three eighths inches wide front peak, and an inch and a quarter wide peak at the rear.  The gilt chin chain is fastened at the sides with rose-pattern ornaments.

This artifact was photographed courtesy of The Royal Scots Museum, Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland.